Mississippi Administrative Code
Title 15 - Mississippi Department of Health
Part 8 - Office of Health Policy and Planning
Subpart 90 - Planning and Resource Development
Chapter 03 - Mental Health
Section 15-8-90-03-306 - Certificate of Need Criteria and Standards for Acute Psychiatric, Chemical Dependency, and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility Beds/Services
Section 15-8-90-03-306.01 - Policy Statement Regarding Certificate of Need Applications for Acute Psychiatric, Chemical Dependency, and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility Beds/Services
Current through September 24, 2024
1. Indigent/Charity Care: An applicant must provide a "reasonable amount" of indigent/charity care as described in Chapter 1 of this Plan.
2. Mental Health Planning Areas: MSDH shall use the state as a whole to determine the need for acute psychiatric beds/services, chemical dependency beds/ services, and psychiatric residential treatment beds/services. Tables 3-6, 3-7, and 3-8 give the statistical need for each category of beds.
3. Public Sector Beds: Because DMH is a public entity and directly operates facilities providing acute psychiatric, chemical dependency, and psychiatric residential treatment facility beds, the number of licensed beds operated by DMH shall not be counted in the bed inventory used to determine statistical need for additional acute psychiatric, chemical dependency, and psychiatric residential treatment facility beds.
4. Comments from DMH: MSDH shall solicit and take into consideration comments received from DMH regarding any CON application for the establishment or expansion of inpatient acute psychiatric, chemical dependency, and/or psychiatric residential treatment facility beds.
5. Separation of Adults and Children/Adolescents: Child and adolescent patients under eighteen (18) years of age must receive treatment in units that are programmatically and physically distinct from adult (18 plus years of age) patient units. A single facility may house adults as well as adolescents and children if both physical design and staffing ratios provide for separation.
6. Separation of Males and Females: Facilities must separate males and females age thirteen (13) and over for living purposes (e.g., separate rooms and rooms located at separate ends of the halls, etc.).
7. Patients with Co-Occurring Disorders: It is frequently impossible for a provider to totally predict or control short-term deviation in the number of patients with mixed psychiatric/ addictive etiology to their illnesses. Therefore, MSDH will allow deviations of up to twenty-five percent (25%) of the total licensed beds as "swing-beds" to accommodate patients having diagnoses of both psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. However, the provider must demonstrate to the Division of Licensure and Certification that the "swing-bed" program meets all applicable licensure and certification regulations for each service offered, i.e., acute psychiatric, chemical dependency, and psychiatric residential treatment facility services, before providing such "swing-bed" services.
8. Comprehensive Program of Treatment: Any new mental health beds approved must provide a comprehensive program of treatment that includes, but is not limited to, inpatient, outpatient, and follow-up services, and in the case of children and adolescents, includes an educational component. The facility may provide outpatient and appropriate follow-up services directly or through contractual arrangements with existing providers of these services.
9. Medicaid Participation: An applicant proposing to offer acute psychiatric, chemical dependency, and/or psychiatric residential treatment facility services or to establish, expand, and/or convert beds under any of the provisions set forth in this section or in the service specific criteria and standards shall affirm in the application that:
10. Licensing and Certification: All acute psychiatric, chemical dependency treatment, co-occurring disorders beds/services, and psychiatric residential treatment facility beds/services must meet all applicable licensing and certification regulations of the Division of Health Facilities Licensure and Certification. If licensure and certification regulations do not exist at the time the application is approved, the program shall comply with such regulations following their effective date.
11. Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility: A psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) is a non-hospital establishment with permanent licensed facilities that provides a twenty-four (24) hour program of care by qualified therapists including, but not limited to, duly licensed mental health professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and licensed certified social workers, for emotionally disturbed children and adolescents referred to such facility by a court, local school district, or the Department of Human Services, who are not in an acute phase of illness requiring the services of a psychiatric hospital and who are in need of such restorative treatment services. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "emotionally disturbed" means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree, which adversely affects educational performance:
An establishment furnishing primarily domiciliary care is not within this definition.
12. Certified Educational Programs: Educational programs certified by the Department of Education shall be available for all school age patients. Also, sufficient areas suitable to meet the recreational needs of the patients are required.
13. Preference in CON Decisions: Applications proposing the conversion of existing acute care hospital beds to acute psychiatric and chemical dependency beds shall receive preference in CON decisions provided the application meets all other criteria and standards under which it is reviewed.
14. Dedicated Beds for Children's Services: It has been determined that there is a need for specialized beds dedicated for the treatment of children less than fourteen (14) years of age. Therefore, of the beds determined to be needed for child/adolescent acute psychiatric services and psychiatric residential treatment facility services, twenty-five (25) beds under each category, for a total of fifty (50) beds statewide, shall be reserved exclusively for programs dedicated to children under the age of fourteen (14).
15. CON Authority: Effective April 12, 2002, no health care facility shall be authorized to add any beds or convert any beds to another category of beds without a CON under the authority of Section 41-7-191(1)(c).
16. Delicensed/Relicensed Beds: Effective March 4, 2003, if a health care facility has voluntarily delicensed some of its existing bed complement, it may later relicense some or all of its delicensed beds without the necessity of having to acquire a CON. MSDH shall maintain a record of the delicensing health care facility and its voluntarily delicensed beds and continue counting those beds as part of the state's total bed count for health care planning purposes.
17. Reopening a Facility: A health care facility has ceased to operate for a period of sixty (60) months or more shall require a CON prior to reopening.
