FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 4, 2005
Contact:
Ross Soboleff, (907) 465-1611
Public comment sought for proposed regulations for Certificate of Need
Public hearings scheduled for March 11, 2005.
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(Juneau, Alaska) - Proposed regulations for the Certificate of Need (CON) Program are available for public comment starting today. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has been in a process of developing new regulations for the Certificate of Need Program that will include new standards of review for health care facilities subject to the CON statute.
Beginning today, draft regulations and standards of review for residential psychiatric treatment centers (RPTCs) will be available for review on the DHSS web site at: http://www.hss.state.ak.us/publicnotice/regulations.cfm.
You may comment on the proposed regulation changes, including the potential costs to private persons of complying with the proposed changes, by submitting written comments to Anthony Lombardo, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Health and Social Services, P.O. Box 110601, Juneau, AK 99811-0601; telephone: (907) 465-3030. Comments may also be made by e-mail sent to Anthony_Lombardo@health.state.ak.us, or by facsimile at (907) 465-3068. The comments must be received no later than 4:30 p.m. on March 23,, 2005. Written comments received are public records and are subject to public inspection.
Oral or written comments may also be submitted at a hearing to be held on March 11, 2005, at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office (LIO), 716 W. 4 th Avenue, Suite 200, Anchorage, Alaska. Interested parties may also participate in the hearing by calling 1-800-395-5073. The hearing will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and might be extended to accommodate those present before 5:30 p.m. who did not have an opportunity to comment.
Standards for review of all other types of health facilities subject to the CON statute will be made available for public comment later this spring. The project to develop new regulations is expected to be substantially complete by June 30, 2005, the end of the current fiscal year.
A Certificate of Need is required for certain health care facilities, such as hospitals, nursing homes, residential psychiatric treatment centers, and imaging centers; and requires justification of the need for the facility in the healthcare marketplace. CON project reviews help ensure that proposed services will be of good quality, acceptable to the public, and will meet the public need while preventing excessive, unnecessary, or duplicative development of facilities or service. Projects that cost over $1 million are subject to the CON statute.
In late November 2004, the Department of Health and Social Services set a moratorium on taking final action on CON applications until the new regulations and standards are in place. CON applications currently in process or any new applications received during the moratorium period have continued to be processed by department CON program staff in accordance with state law. However, no final action on the applications will be taken until the regulations and standards are in place.
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For more information, please contact
Sherry Hill
Special Assistant to the Commissioner
Juneau Office: (907) 465-1618
Anchorage: (907) 269-7800
Cell: (907) 321-2838
Email: sherry_hill@health.state.ak.usJeff Kasper
Project Director
Juneau Office: (907) 465-8194
Email: jeff_kasper@health.state.ak.us
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