South Carolina Code 37-11-30. Licensing of continuing care retirement community
(B) Applications for licenses must be in a form and under conditions as may be prescribed by the department and must set forth:
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 37-11-30
- Continuing care contract: means a contract to provide board or lodging together with nursing, medical, or other health-related services:
(a) to a person sixty-five years of age or older at the time the contract is signed or purchased; or
(b) which provides for services for the life of the person or for more than one year, including mutually terminable contracts; and
(c) which requires payment of an entrance fee or other fee in return for a promise of future care. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20 - Continuing care retirement community: means a community in which there is furnished, pursuant to a continuing care contract, to two or more persons not related to the administrator or owner of the facility within the third degree of consanguinity, board or lodging together with nursing, medical, or other health-related services, regardless of whether the services or lodging are provided at the same location or not. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Department: means the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. Source: OCC
- Entrance fee: means a payment that assures a resident a place in a facility. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
- Facility: means the place in which an operator undertakes to provide continuing care to a person. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
- Living unit: means a room, apartment, cottage, or other area within a facility set aside for the exclusive use or control of one or more identified residents. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Operator: means the promoter, developer, or owner of a continuing care retirement community or of an institution, building, residence, or other place, whether operated for profit or not, or a person who solicits or undertakes to provide continuing care under a continuing care facility contract. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Resident: means a purchaser of, a nominee of, or a subscriber to a continuing care contract. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
- Trust institution: means a state or national bank, state or federal savings and loan association, or trust company authorized to act in a fiduciary capacity in this State. See South Carolina Code 37-11-20
(1) the name and business address of the operator and a statement of whether the operator is a partnership, corporation, or other type of legal entity;
(2) the names and business addresses of the officers, directors, trustees, managing or general partners, any person having a five percent or greater equity or beneficial interest in the continuing care retirement community, and any person who will be managing the facility on a day-to-day basis, and a description of these persons’ interests in or occupations with the operator. The following information on all persons named in response to this item is required:
(a) a description of the business experience of the person, if any, in the operation or management of similar facilities;
(b) the name and address of any professional service, firm, association, trust, partnership, or corporation in which this person has, or which has in this person, a five percent or greater interest and which is providing or in the future shall provide goods, leases, or services to the facility or to residents of the facility of an aggregate value determined by regulation within any year, including a description of the goods, leases, or services and their probable or anticipated cost to the facility, operator, or residents, or a statement that this cost presently cannot be estimated;
(c) a description of any matter in which the person:
(i) has been convicted of a felony or pleaded nolo contendere to a felony charge, or held liable or enjoined in a civil action by final judgment, if the felony or civil action involved fraud, embezzlement, fraudulent conversion, or misappropriation of property; or
(ii) is subject to a currently effective injunctive or restrictive court order or within the past five years, had a state or federal license or permit suspended or revoked as a result of an action brought by a governmental agency or department;
(3) a statement as to the operator’s affiliation with a religious, charitable, or other nonprofit organization, the extent of the affiliation, if any, the extent to which the affiliate organization is responsible for the financial and contractual obligations of the operator, and the provision of the Federal Internal Revenue Code, if any, under which the operator or affiliate is exempt from the payment of income tax;
(4) the location and description of the physical property of the facility, existing or proposed, and to the extent proposed, the estimated completion date, whether construction has begun, and the contingencies subject to which construction may be deferred;
(5) the services provided or proposed to be provided pursuant to contracts for continuing care at the facility, including the extent to which medical care is furnished, and a clear statement of which services are included for specified basic fees for continuing care and which services are made available at or by the facility at extra charge;
(6) a description of all fees required of residents, including the entrance fee and periodic charges, if any. The description must include:
(a) a statement of the fees charged if the resident marries while at the facility and a statement of the terms concerning the entry of a spouse to the facility and the consequences if the spouse does not meet the requirements for entry;
(b) the circumstances under which the resident is permitted to remain in the facility if he has financial difficulties;
(c) the terms and conditions under which a contract for continuing care at the facility may be canceled by the operator or by the resident, and the conditions, if any, under which all or a portion of the entrance fee is refunded if the contract is canceled by the operator or by the resident if the resident dies before or following occupancy of a living unit;
(d) the conditions under which a living unit occupied by a resident may be made available by the facility to a different or new resident;
(e) the manner by which the operator may adjust periodic charges or other recurring fees and the limitations on these adjustments, if any. If the facility is already in operation or if the operator or manager operates one or more similar continuing care locations within this State, tables must be included showing the frequency and average dollar amount of each increase in periodic charges, or other recurring fees at each facility or location for the previous five years, or for all of the years in operation if less than five years;
(7) the health and financial conditions required for a person to be accepted as a resident and to continue as a resident once accepted, including the effect of a change in the health or financial condition of a person between the date of entering a contract for continuing care and the date or initial occupancy of a living unit by that person;
(8) the provisions that have been made or will be made, if any, to provide reserve funding or security to enable the operator to perform its obligations fully under contracts to provide continuing care at the facility, including the establishment of escrow accounts, trusts, or reserve funds, together with the manner in which these funds will be invested and the names and experience of individuals in the direct employment of the operator who will make the investment decisions;
(9) certified financial statements of the operator, including a balance sheet as of the end of the most recent fiscal year and income statements for the three most recent fiscal years of the operator or for all of the years in existence if less than three years. If the operator’s fiscal year ended more than one hundred twenty days before the date the application for a license is filed, interim financial statements as of a date not more than ninety days before the date of filing the application must be included but need not be certified;
(10) if the continuing care contract provides for services for the life of the person or for more than one year including mutually terminable contracts, a summary of a report of an actuary, updated every two years, that estimates the capacity of the operator to meet its contractual obligation to the residents;
(11) if the facility has not begun operations, documentation by the operator that the proposed project is economically feasible, both immediately and long term, and can be accommodated in the patient charge structure without unreasonable increases;
(12) the estimated number of residents of the facility to be provided services by the operator pursuant to the contract for continuing care;
(13) a copy of the standard form of contract for continuing care used by the operator attached to each disclosure statement;
(14) other material information concerning the facility or the operator as the operator wishes to include.
(C) In addition to the information required in subsection (B)(1)-(8) and (11)-(14), an application for a preliminary license must set forth:
(1) a copy of the reservation agreement used to collect reservation deposits;
(2) a copy of the applicant’s escrow agreement with a trust institution; and
(3) a representative sample of any advertisements used or to be used for the facility.