(1) A change in bed capacity at a residential hospice care center shall not be subject to certificate of need review under this chapter if the department determined prior to June 1994 that the construction, development, or other establishment of the residential hospice care center was not subject to certificate of need review under this chapter.

(2) For purposes of this section, a “residential hospice care center” means any building, facility, place, or equivalent that opened in December 1996 and is organized, maintained, and operated specifically to provide beds, accommodations, facilities, and services over a continuous period of twenty-four hours or more for palliative care of two or more individuals, not related to the operator, who are diagnosed as being in the latter stages of an advanced disease that is expected to lead to death.