Bill > SB613

This bill, titled the "Rural Health Care System Stabilization Act," requires any new health care facility, such as an ambulatory surgical center or emergency medical care center, planning to open within a 15-mile radius of a **critical access hospital** (a type of hospital designed to improve access to healthcare services in rural areas, certified under federal regulations) to provide certified, written notice to that hospital. Additionally, the bill establishes standards for transferring patients from **freestanding hospital emergency facilities** (emergency rooms not physically attached to a main hospital) to acute care hospitals, ensuring these transfers prioritize clinical appropriateness, patient safety, continuity of care, and patient choice. It explicitly bans coercive or exclusive transfer practices, reinforces existing federal requirements under the **Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)**, which mandates that hospitals provide appropriate medical screening and stabilizing treatment to anyone seeking emergency care regardless of their ability to pay, and grants the state authority to enforce violations of these new transfer rules.