Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-490

Current with legislation from 2024 effective through May 19, 2024.

Section 19a-490 - (Formerly Sec. 19-576). Licensing of institutions. Definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Institution" means a hospital, short-term hospital special hospice, hospice inpatient facility, residential care home, nursing home facility, home health care agency, home health aide agency, behavioral health facility, assisted living services agency, substance abuse treatment facility, outpatient surgical facility, outpatient clinic, clinical laboratory, blood collection facility, source plasma donation center, birth center, an infirmary operated by an educational institution for the care of students enrolled in, and faculty and employees of, such institution; a facility engaged in providing services for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment or care of human health conditions, including facilities operated and maintained by any state agency; and a residential facility for persons with intellectual disability licensed pursuant to section 17a-227 and certified to participate in the Title XIX Medicaid program as an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disability. "Institution" does not include any facility for the care and treatment of persons with mental illness or substance use disorder operated or maintained by any state agency, except Whiting Forensic Hospital and the hospital and psychiatric residential treatment facility units of the Albert J. Solnit Children's Center;

(b) "Hospital" means an establishment for the lodging, care and treatment of persons suffering from disease or other abnormal physical or mental conditions and includes inpatient psychiatric services in general hospitals;

(c) "Residential care home" or "rest home" means a community residence that furnishes, in single or multiple facilities, food and shelter to two or more persons unrelated to the proprietor and, in addition, provides services that meet a need beyond the basic provisions of food, shelter and laundry and may qualify as a setting that allows residents to receive home and community-based services funded by state and federal programs;

(d) "Home health care agency" means a public or private organization, or a subdivision thereof, engaged in providing professional nursing services and the following services, available twenty-four hours per day, in the patient's home or a substantially equivalent environment: Home health aide services as defined in this section, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy or medical social services. The agency shall provide professional nursing services and at least one additional service directly and all others directly or through contract. An agency shall be available to enroll new patients seven days a week, twenty-four hours per day;

(e) "Home health aide agency" means a public or private organization, except a home health care agency, which provides in the patient's home or a substantially equivalent environment supportive services which may include, but are not limited to, assistance with personal hygiene, dressing, feeding and incidental household tasks essential to achieving adequate household and family management. Such supportive services shall be provided under the supervision of a registered nurse and, if such nurse determines appropriate, shall be provided by a social worker, physical therapist, speech therapist or occupational therapist. Such supervision may be provided directly or through contract;

(f) "Home health aide services" as defined in this section shall not include services provided to assist individuals with activities of daily living when such individuals have a disease or condition that is chronic and stable as determined by a physician licensed in the state;

(g) "Behavioral health facility" means any facility that provides mental health services to persons eighteen years of age or older or substance use disorder services to persons of any age in an outpatient treatment or residential setting to ameliorate mental, emotional, behavioral or substance use disorder issues;

(h) "Clinical laboratory" means any facility or other area used for microbiological, serological, chemical, hematological, immunohematological, biophysical, cytological, pathological or other examinations of human body fluids, secretions, excretions or excised or exfoliated tissues for the purpose of providing information for the (1) diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any human disease or impairment, (2) assessment of human health, or (3) assessment of the presence of drugs, poisons or other toxicological substances;

(i) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, limited liability company or association;

(j) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Public Health or the commissioner's designee;

(k) "Home health agency" means an agency licensed as a home health care agency or a home health aide agency;

(l) "Assisted living services agency" means an agency that provides chronic and stable individuals with services that include, but need not limited to, nursing services and assistance with activities of daily living and may have a dementia special care unit or program as defined in section 19a-562;

(m) "Outpatient clinic" means an organization operated by a municipality or a corporation, other than a hospital, that provides (1) ambulatory medical care, including preventive and health promotion services, (2) dental care, or (3) mental health services in conjunction with medical or dental care for the purpose of diagnosing or treating a health condition that does not require the patient's overnight care;

(n) "Multicare institution" means a hospital that provides outpatient behavioral health services or other health care services, psychiatric outpatient clinic for adults, free-standing facility for the care or treatment of substance abusive or dependent persons, hospital for psychiatric disabilities, as defined in section 17a-495, or a general acute care hospital that provides outpatient behavioral health services that (1) is licensed in accordance with this chapter, (2) has more than one facility or one or more satellite units owned and operated by a single licensee, and (3) offers complex patient health care services at each facility or satellite unit. For purposes of this subsection, "satellite unit" means a location where a segregated unit of services is provided by the multicare institution;

(o) "Nursing home" or "nursing home facility" means (1) any chronic and convalescent nursing home or any rest home with nursing supervision that provides nursing supervision under a medical director twenty-four hours per day, or (2) any chronic and convalescent nursing home that provides skilled nursing care under medical supervision and direction to carry out nonsurgical treatment and dietary procedures for chronic diseases, convalescent stages, acute diseases or injuries;

(p) "Outpatient dialysis unit" means (1) an out-of-hospital out-patient dialysis unit that is licensed by the department to provide (A) services on an out-patient basis to persons requiring dialysis on a short-term basis or for a chronic condition, or (B) training for home dialysis, or (2) an in-hospital dialysis unit that is a special unit of a licensed hospital designed, equipped and staffed to (A) offer dialysis therapy on an out-patient basis, (B) provide training for home dialysis, and (C) perform renal transplantations;

(q) "Hospice agency" means a public or private organization that provides home care and hospice services to terminally ill patients;

(r) "Psychiatric residential treatment facility" means a nonhospital facility with a provider agreement with the Department of Social Services to provide inpatient services to Medicaid-eligible individuals under the age of twenty-one;

(s) "Chronic disease hospital" means a long-term hospital having facilities, medical staff and all necessary personnel for the diagnosis, care and treatment of chronic diseases;

(t) "Blood collection facility" means a facility that performs blood component collection activities where blood is removed from a human being for the purpose of administering such blood or any of its components to any human being. "Blood collection facility" does not include a facility that performs blood component collection activities to collect source plasma or perform testing that would require licensure as a clinical laboratory. For the purposes of this subsection, "source plasma" means the liquid portion of human blood collected by plasmapheresis and intended as source material for further manufacturing use and does not include single donor plasma products intended for intravenous use, and "plasmapheresis" means a procedure in which blood is removed from a blood donor, the plasma is separated from the formed elements and at least the red blood cells are returned to the blood donor at the time of the donation;

(u) "Source plasma donation center" means a facility where source plasma is collected by plasmapheresis. For the purposes of this subsection, "source plasma" means the liquid portion of human blood collected by plasmapheresis and intended as source material for further manufacturing use and does not include single donor plasma products intended for intravenous use, and "plasmapheresis" means a procedure in which blood is removed from a blood donor, the plasma is separated from the formed elements and at least the red blood cells are returned to the blood donor at the time of the donation; and

(v) "Birth center" means a freestanding facility that is licensed by the department (1) to provide perinatal, labor, delivery and postpartum care during and immediately after delivery to persons presenting with a low-risk pregnancy and healthy newborns for a period typically less than twenty-four hours, and (2) that is not a hospital licensed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, or attached to or located in such a hospital. For the purposes of this subsection, "low-risk pregnancy" means an uncomplicated, singleton pregnancy that has vertex presentation and is at low risk for developing complications during labor and birth, as determined by an evaluation and examination conducted by a licensed health care provider acting within the scope of such provider's practice.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-490

(1953, 1955, S. 2051d; 1957, P.A. 217, S. 2; 455, S. 1; 586, S. 6; 1959, P.A. 188; February, 1965, P.A. 161; 1969, P.A. 713; P.A. 74-137, S. 12, 21; P.A. 77-569, S. 4; 77-601, S. 2, 11; P.A. 78-60, S. 1, 2; P.A. 79-46, S. 1, 3; 79-610, S. 22; P.A. 80-186, S. 1, 2; 80-483, S. 87, 186; P.A. 87-107; P.A. 88-357, S. 5; P.A. 89-350, S. 5; P.A. 90-230, S. 30, 101; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 91-8 , S. 18 , 63 ; P.A. 92-80 , S. 1 , 3 ; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 92-16 , S. 38 , 89 ; P.A. 93-381 , S. 9 , 39 ; 93-415 , S. 1 , 2 ; P.A. 95-79 , S. 63 , 189 ; 95-160 , S. 10 , 69 ; 95-257 , S. 12 , 21 , 58 ; 95-271 , S. 34 , 40 ; P.A. 96-139 , S. 12 , 13 ; 96-268 , S. 6 , 34 ; P.A. 97-112 , S. 2 ; P.A. 01-57 , S. 1 ; P.A. 03-274 , S. 2 ; P.A. 05-280 , S. 60 ; P.A. 06-195 , S. 42 ; P.A. 07-252 , S. 12 , 13 , 68 ; P.A. 10-117 , S. 32 ; P.A. 13-139 , S. 15 ; 13-208 , S. 4 , 25 , 77 ; P.A. 14-211 , S. 1 ; P.A. 15-242 , S. 39 ; P.A. 16-66 , S. 5 ; P.A. 17-146 , S. 2 ; 17-202 , S. 71 ; P.A. 18-86 , S. 5 .)

Amended by P.A. 23-0147,S. 1 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2023 Regular Session, eff. 1/1/2024.

Amended by P.A. 23-0031, S. 1 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2023 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2023.

Amended by P.A. 22-0058, S. 1 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2022 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2022.

Amended by P.A. 21-0002, S. 30 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2021 Special Session, eff. 10/1/2022.

Amended by P.A. 21-0002, S. 29 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2021 Special Session, eff. 10/1/2022.

Amended by P.A. 21-0121, S. 45 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2021 Regular Session, eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by P.A. 19-0118, S. 6 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2019 Regular Session, eff. 7/1/2019.

Amended by P.A. 19-0097, SS.  2 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2019 Regular Session, 3 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2019 Regular Session, 4 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2019 Regular Sessioneff. 7/1/2019.

Amended by P.A. 18-0086, S. 5 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2018 Regular Session, eff. 6/4/2018.

Amended by P.A. 17-0202, S. 71 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2017 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2017.

Amended by P.A. 17-0146, S. 2 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2017 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2017.

Amended by P.A. 16-0066, S. 5 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2016 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2016.

Amended by P.A. 15-0242, S. 39 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2015 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2015.

Amended by P.A. 14-0211, S. 1 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2014 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2014.

Annotations to former section 19-576: Constitutionality of former statute upheld. 140 Conn. 478 . Difference between public and private hospitals discussed. 21 CS 55. Annotations to present section: Cited. 214 C. 321 ; 219 C. 657.