Bill > S644

This bill aims to further regulate hospitals by establishing a process for the Department of Public Health to annually determine which acute hospitals and hospital services are essential for community health, considering factors like accessibility, travel time, financial accessibility for vulnerable populations, and overall need, with special attention to low-income and uninsured residents. It also introduces provisions for identifying and preemptively assisting hospitals at risk of closing or reducing services, including those in receivership or predicted to be vulnerable. Furthermore, the bill outlines a detailed process for appointing a receiver to operate a hospital when it faces closure, service disruption, or is operating without a license, with specific grounds for receivership including ensuring continued operation, maintaining needed services for the community, protecting vulnerable patients, and securing the operation of low-cost facilities. The receiver would have broad authority to manage the hospital, remedy violations, and expend revenues, with limitations on paying pre-appointment debts that could jeopardize patient care or the hospital's purpose. The bill also addresses the receiver's ability to avoid certain leases or mortgages if they were fraudulent or exploitative, and establishes conditions under which a receivership can be terminated, with a maximum duration of five years. Finally, it clarifies the receiver's liability and the process for recouping expenditures made by the commonwealth, including establishing liens on hospital property and holding individuals financially responsible if they benefit from expenditures or caused the need for them through neglect or abandonment.