South Carolina § 44-7-170 - Certificate of Need exemptions.

§ 44-7-170. Certificate of Need exemptions.

(A) The following are exempt from Certificate of Need review:

(1) the relocation of a licensed hospital in the same county in which the hospital is currently located, as long as:

(a) any Certificate of Need issued to the hospital for a project to be located at the hospital's existing location has been fulfilled, withdrawn, or has expired in accordance with Section 44-7-230 and the department's implementing regulations; and

(b) the proposed site of relocation is utilized in a manner that furthers health care delivery and innovation for the citizens of the State of South Carolina;

(2) the purchase, merger, or otherwise the acquisition of an existing hospital by another person or health care facility;

(3) crisis stabilization unit facilities. Notwithstanding subsection (C), crisis stabilization unit facilities will not require a written exemption from the department;

(4) acute hospital care at-home programs and services delivered by a licensed acute care hospital. The delivery of acute hospital care at-home programs and services by a licensed acute care hospital does not require a written exemption from the department. Additionally, patients enrolled in the hospital care at-home program shall not be considered within the licensed bed capacity of the hospital participating in the program.

(B) This article does not apply to:

(1) construction of a new hospital with up to fifty beds in any county currently without a hospital;

(2) hospitals owned by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and operated by the Office of Mental Health and the Office of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, except an addition of one or more beds to the total number of beds of the predecessor departments' health care facilities existing on July 1, 1988;

(3) any federal hospital sponsored and operated by this State;

(4) hospitals owned and operated by the federal government.

(C) Before undertaking a project enumerated in subsection (A), a person shall obtain a written exemption from the department as may be more fully described in regulation.

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 32-766; 1952 Code SECTION 32-766; 1947 (45) 510; 1964 (53) 2117; 1965 (54) 472; 1968 (55) 2815; 1971 (57) 376; 1979 Act No. 51 SECTION 1; 1988 Act No. 670, SECTION 1; 1992 Act No. 322, SECTION 1; 1992 Act No. 511, SECTION 7; 1998 Act No; 303, SECTIONS 2, 3; 2003 Act No. 27, SECTION 1, eff upon approval (became law without the Governor's signature on May 15, 2003); 2010 Act No. 278, SECTION 6, eff July 1, 2010; 2017 Act No. 10 (S.354), SECTION 2, eff April 24, 2017; 2023 Act No. 20 (S.164), SECTION 10, eff May 16, 2023; 2024 Act No. 164 (S.858), SECTION 2, eff May 20, 2024.

Code Commissioner's Note

At the direction of the Code Commissioner, certain references in the S.C. Code to the State Department of Mental Health, South Carolina Mental Health Commission, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs Commission, Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, and other related terms were changed to reflect the restructuring of these agencies into component offices under the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, pursuant to 2025 Act No. 3, SECTION 18.

Effect of Amendment

2017 Act No. 10, SECTION 2, in (A), in (3), substituted a semicolon for a period at the end, and added (4), relating to crisis stabilization unit facilities.

2023 Act No. 20, SECTION 10, rewrote the section.

2024 Act No. 164, SECTION 2, in (A), inserted (4), and made a nonsubstantive change.