Current through April 3, 2024
(1) No person,
partnership, association, corporation, or state, county or local government
unit, or any division, department, board or agency thereof, shall establish,
conduct, operate, or maintain in the State of Tennessee any home care
organization providing hospice services without having a license. A license
shall be issued to the person or persons named and for the premises listed in
the application for licensure and for the geographic area specified by the
certificate of need or at the time of the original licensing. The name of the
home care organization providing hospice services shall not be changed without
first notifying the department in writing. Licenses are not transferable or
assignable and shall expire and become invalid annually on the anniversary date
of their original issuance. The license shall be conspicuously posted in the
home care organizations providing hospice services.
(2) In order to make application for a
license:
(a) The applicant shall submit an
application on a form prepared by the Department.
(b) Each applicant for a license shall pay an
annual license fee in the amount of one thousand four hundred and four dollars
($1,404.00). The fee must be submitted with the initial application or renewal
application and is not refundable.
(c) The issuance of an application form is in
no way a guarantee that the completed application will be accepted or that a
license will be issued by the Department. Patients shall not be admitted to the
agency until a license has been issued. Applicants shall not hold themselves
out to the public as being an agency until the license has been issued. A
license shall not be issued until the agency is in substantial compliance with
these rules, including submission of all information required by T.C.A. §
68-11-206(1) or
as later amended, and all information required by the Commissioner.
(d) The applicant must prove the ability to
meet the financial needs of the agency.
(e) The applicant shall not use subterfuge or
other evasive means to obtain a license, such as filing for a license through a
second party when an individual has been denied a license or has had a license
disciplined or has attempted to avoid inspection and review process.
(f) The applicant shall allow the home care
agency providing hospice services to be inspected by a Department surveyor. In
the event that deficiencies are noted, the applicant shall submit a plan of
corrective action to the Board that must be accepted by the Board. Once the
deficiencies have been corrected, then the Board shall consider the application
for licensure.
(3) A
proposed change of ownership, including a change in a controlling interest,
must be reported to the Department a minimum of thirty (30) days prior to the
change. A new application and fee must be received by the Department before the
license may be issued.
(a) For the purposes of
licensing, the licensee of an agency has the ultimate responsibility for the
operation of the agency, including the final authority to make or control
operational decisions and legal responsibility for the business management. A
change of ownership occurs whenever this ultimate legal authority for the
responsibility of the agency's operation is transferred.
(b) A change of ownership occurs whenever
there is a change in the legal structure by which the agency is owned and
operated.
(c) Transactions
constituting a change of ownership include, but are not limited to the
following:
1. Transfer of the agency's legal
title;
2. Lease of the agency's
operations;
3. Dissolution of any
partnership that owns, or owns a controlling interest in, the agency;
4. One partnership is replaced by another
through the removal, addition or substitution of a partner;
5. Removal of the general partner or general
partners, if the agency is owned by a limited partnership;
6. Merger of an agency owner (a corporation)
into another corporation where, after the merger, the owner's shares of capital
stock are canceled;
7. The
consolidation of a corporate agency owner with one or more corporations;
or
8. Transfers between levels of
government.
(d)
Transactions which do not constitute a change of ownership include, but are not
limited to, the following:
1. Changes in the
membership of a corporate board of directors or board of trustees;
2. Two (2) or more corporations merge and the
originally-licensed corporation survives;
3. Changes in the membership of a non-profit
corporation;
4. Transfers between
departments of the same level of government; or
5. Corporate stock transfers or sales, even
when a controlling interest.
(e) Management agreements are generally not
changes of ownership if the owner continues to retain ultimate authority for
the operation of the agency. However, if the ultimate authority is surrendered
and transferred from the owner to a new manager, then a change of ownership has
occurred.
(f) Sale/lease-back
agreements shall not be treated as changes in ownership if the lease involves
the agency's entire real and personal property and if the identity of the
lessee, who shall continue the operation, retains the exact same legal form as
the former owner.
(4)
Renewal.
(a) In order to renew a license, each
home care agency providing hospice services shall submit to periodic
inspections by Department surveyors for compliance with these rules. If
deficiencies are noted, the licensee shall submit an acceptable plan of
corrective action and shall remedy the deficiencies. In addition, each licensee
shall submit a renewal form approved by the board and applicable renewal fee
prior to the expiration date of the license.
(b) If a licensee fails to renew its license
prior to the date of its expiration but submits the renewal form and fee within
sixty (60) days thereafter, the licensee may renew late by paying, in addition
to the renewal fee, a late penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) per month for
each month or fraction of a month that renewal is late; provided that the late
penalty shall not exceed twice the renewal fee.
(c) In the event that a licensee fails to
renew its license within the sixty (60) day grace period following the license
expiration date, then the licensee shall reapply for a license by submitting
the following to the Board office:
1. A
completed application for licensure;
2. The license fee provided in rule
0720-28-.02(2)(b);
and
3. Any other information
required by the Health Services and Development Agency.
(d) Upon reapplication, the licensee shall
submit to an inspection of the facility by Department of Health
surveyors.
Authority: T.C.A. §§
4-5-202,
4-5-204,
68-11-201,
68-11-202,
68-11-204,
68-11-206,
68-11-206(a)(5)
[effective January 1, 2009], 68-11-209, 68-11-209(a)(1), 68-11-210, and
68-11-216 and Chapter 846 of the Public Acts of 2008, § 1.
