Virginia Law

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Applicant" means a party to a proposed cooperative agreement who submits an application to the authority pursuant to § 15.2-5384.1 of the Code of Virginia.

"Application" means the written materials submitted by applicants to the authority and the department in accordance with § 15.2-5384.1 of the Code of Virginia.

"Attorney General" means the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

"Authority" means the political subdivision organized and operated pursuant to Chapter 53.1 (§ 15.2-5368 et seq.) of Title 15.2 of the Code of Virginia, or if such authority is abolished, the board, body, authority, department, or officer succeeding to the principal functions thereof or to whom the powers given by Chapter 53.1 of Title 15.2 of the Code of Virginia are given by law.

"Commissioner" means the State Health Commissioner.

"Cooperative agreement" means an agreement among two or more hospitals for the sharing, allocation, consolidation by merger or other combination of assets, or referral of patients, personnel, instructional programs, support services, and facilities or medical, diagnostic, or laboratory facilities or procedures or other services traditionally offered by hospitals.

"Day" or "days" means calendar days.

"Department" means the Virginia Department of Health.

"Hospital" includes any health center and health provider under common ownership with the hospital and means any and all providers of dental, medical, and mental health services, including all related facilities and approaches thereto and appurtenances thereof. Dental, medical, and mental health facilities includes any and all facilities suitable for providing hospital, dental, medical, and mental health care, including any and all structures, buildings, improvements, additions, extensions, replacements, appurtenances, lands, rights in lands, franchises, machinery, equipment, furnishing, landscaping, approaches, roadways, and other facilities necessary or desirable in connection therewith or incidental thereto (including hospitals; nursing homes; assisted living facilities; continuing care facilities; self-care facilities; mental health facilities; wellness and health maintenance centers; medical office facilities; clinics; outpatient surgical centers; alcohol, substance abuse, and drug treatment centers; dental care clinics; laboratories; research facilities; sanitariums; hospices; facilities for the residence or care of the elderly, the handicapped, or the chronically ill; residential facilities for nurses, interns, and physicians; and any other kind of facility for the diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, prevention, or palliation of any human illness, injury, disorder, or disability) together with all related and supporting facilities and equipment necessary and desirable in connection therewith or incidental thereto, or equipment alone, including kitchen, laundry, laboratory, wellness, pharmaceutical, administrative, communications, computer and recreational facilities and equipment, storage space, mobile medical facilities, vehicles, and other equipment necessary or desirable for the transportation of medical equipment or the transportation of patients. Dental, medical, and mental health facilities also includes facilities for graduate-level instruction in medicine or dentistry and clinics appurtenant thereto offering free or reduced rate dental, medical, or mental health services to the public.

"Letter authorizing cooperative agreement" means a document that is issued by the commissioner approving a cooperative agreement.

"Measure" means some number of factors or benchmarks, which may be binary, a range, or continuous factors.

"Participating locality" means any county or city in the LENOWISCO or Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commissions and the Counties of Smyth and Washington and the City of Bristol with respect to which an authority may be organized and in which it is contemplated that the authority will function.

"Party" means a hospital entering into a cooperative agreement.

"Plan of separation" means the written proposal submitted with an application to return the parties to a preconsolidation state, which includes a plan for separation of any combined assets, offering, provision, operation, planning, funding, pricing, contracting, utilization review or management of health services or any combined sharing, allocation, or referral of patients, personnel, employee benefits, instructional programs, support services and facilities or medical, diagnostic or laboratory facilities or procedures or other services traditionally offered by hospitals, including any parent or subsidiary at the time the consolidation occurs or thereafter.

"Primary service area" or "PSA" means the geographic area from which a hospital draws 75% of its patients as measured by the residential zip code of each patient.

"Secondary service area" or "SSA" means the geographic area from which a hospital draws an additional 15% of its patients, as measured by the residential zip code of each patient.