15 Miss. Code. R. 9-91-1.1
Section 41-7-171 et seq., Mississippi Code of 1972 Annotated, as amended, established the Mississippi Department of Health (Department) as the sole and official agency of the State of Mississippi to administer and supervise all state health planning and development responsibilities of the State of Mississippi.
The intention of health planning and health regulatory activities is to prevent unnecessary duplication of health resources; provide cost containment, improve the health of Mississippi residents; and increase the accessibility, acceptability, continuity and quality of health services. The regulatory mechanism to achieve these results is the Certificate of Need (CON).
A CON must be obtained from the Department before undertaking any of the activities described in Section 41-7-191(1) without obtaining a Certificate of Need (CON) from the Department. No final arrangement or commitment for financing such activity may be made by any person unless a CON for such arrangement or commitment has been issued by the Department. The Department will only issue a CON for new institutional health services and other proposals which are determined to be needed pursuant to statutory requirements. Only those proposals granted a CON may be developed or offered within the State of Mississippi.
Only the Department, acting in response to an application for a certificate of need, or in response to a decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, may cause a CON to be issued, denied, or withdrawn or may determine that CON review is not required. In carrying out these responsibilities, the Department shall make decisions to issue or withdraw a CON by conducting the review of each application in accordance with the adopted procedures, standards, and criteria.
No CON shall be issued unless the action proposed in the application for such Certificate has been reviewed for consistency with the specifications and criteria established by the Department and substantially complies with the projection of need as reported in the State Health Plan which is in effect at the time the application is received by the Department.
The Department will disapprove a CON application if the applicant fails to provide or confirm that the applicant shall provide a reasonable amount of indigent care or has admission policies which deny access to care by indigent patients.
The Department will disapprove a CON application if approval of the request would have significant adverse effect on the ability of an existing facility or service to provide Medicaid/indigent care.
The State Health Officer shall determine whether the amount of indigent care provided or to be offered is "reasonable." The Department has determined that a reasonable amount of indigent care is an amount which is comparable to the amount of such care offered by other providers of the requested service within the same, or proximate, geographic area.
The Department shall adopt and revise as necessary criteria and review procedures for CON applications. Before review of new institutional health services or other proposals requiring a CON, the Department shall disseminate to all health care facilities and health maintenance organizations within the State and shall publish in The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) and other newspapers deemed appropriate a description of the scope of coverage of the State Department of Health's Certificate of Need Program. Whenever the scope of such coverage is revised, the State Department of Health shall disseminate and publish a revised description in like manner.
Certificates of Need shall be issued by the State Health Officer based upon those criteria and standards established and lawfully adopted. Appropriate mechanisms for providing affected persons an opportunity for a formal hearing on matters to be considered by the State Department of Health have been developed. No CON shall be granted or denied until affected parties have been accorded such right to a formal hearing.
A CON is not transferable from one person or entity to another except with the approval of the Department. A CON shall be valid for a designated period of not more than one year from the effective date. The Department may extend the CON for a period not to exceed six months in those cases where the applicant shows to the satisfaction of the State Department of Health that a good faith effort has been made toward completion of the project.
All approved projects will be monitored by Department staff to assure compliance with stated policies, standards (including Life Safety, Construction, and Licensure), and approved costs.
Recipients of Certificates of Need are required to make written progress reports of their projects at least every six months and at completion.
NOTE: If any section, chapter, articles, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase, rule or regulation, or any other part or portion of this State Certificate of Need Review Manual is declared by proper authority to be invalid or of no effect, the remainder hereof shall be in no manner affected thereby but shall remain in full force and effect.
Whenever or wherever the occasion may arise to present conflict between this State Certificate of Need Review Manual and legislative statutes, the legislative statutes shall prevail.
15 Miss. Code. R. 9-91-1.1