Virginia Law

A. No new radiation therapy service should be approved unless:

1. Existing radiation therapy machines located in the health planning district performed an average of 8,000 procedures per existing and approved radiation therapy machine in the relevant reporting period; and

2. The new service will perform at least 5,000 procedures by the second year of operation without significantly reducing the utilization of existing providers in the health planning district.

B. The number of radiation therapy machines needed in a health planning district will be determined as follows:

where:

1. The population is projected to be at least 150,000 people three years from the current year as reported in the most current projections of a demographic entity as determined by the commissioner;

2. The cancer incidence rate as determined by data from the Statewide Cancer Registry;

3. 60% is the estimated number of new cancer cases in a health planning district that are treatable with radiation therapy; and

4. 320 is 100% utilization of a radiation therapy machine based upon an anticipated average of 25 procedures per case.

C. Proposals for new radiation therapy services located less than 60 minutes driving time one way, under normal conditions, from any site that radiation therapy services are available shall demonstrate that the proposed new services will perform an average of 4,500 procedures annually by the second year of operation, without significantly reducing the utilization of existing services in the health planning district.