4. a. The determination of whether a hospital subacute care unit or a skilled nursing or comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or other type of facility is the preferred non-acute care placement for a patient shall be based on clinical considerations and the preference of the patient and his family; except that, as a condition of licensure of a hospital subacute care unit, clinically stable patients who are being treated in the diagnostic categories listed in paragraph (1) of this subsection and who meet the criteria for inpatient rehabilitation hospital care listed in paragraph (2) of this subsection, except as may be recommended by the comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds pursuant to subsection b. of this section, shall not be placed in a hospital subacute care unit.

(1) Diagnostic categories include patients with: strokes, congenital anomalies, major multiple trauma, polyarthritis including rheumatoid arthritis, neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis, motor neuron diseases, polyneuropathy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease, brain injury including traumatic or non-traumatic, spinal cord injury, amputations, joint replacements, fracture of the femur including hip fracture and burns.

(2) Criteria for inpatient rehabilitation hospital care include patients who meet or require all of the following:

(a) close medical supervision by a physician with specialized training or experience in rehabilitation;

(b) 24-hour rehabilitation nursing;

(c) a relatively intense level of rehabilitation services;

(d) a multi-disciplinary team approach to the delivery of the program;

(e) a coordinated program of care;

(f) significant practical improvement is expected in a reasonable period of time; and

(g) realistic goals of self-care or independence in activities of daily living.

b. An acute care hospital shall forward information on clinically stable patients to a licensed comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or an acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds. The licensed comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or the acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds shall then make a recommendation, signed by a physician with specialized training or experience in rehabilitation, regarding placement within 24-hours of receipt of the information from the acute care hospital and which, together with the concurring or alternate recommendation from a case manager at the acute care hospital, shall be forwarded to the patient’s attending physician.

c. A patient in a skilled nursing home who is admitted to and discharged from an acute care hospital shall not be admitted to the hospital’s subacute care unit unless the skilled nursing home is unable to readmit the patient within 24 hours after notification by the acute care hospital that the patient is ready for readmission to the skilled nursing home. If a patient is admitted to the hospital’s subacute care unit because that patient could not be readmitted to the skilled nursing home, the patient shall be discharged to the skilled nursing facility of origin as soon as the home agrees to accept the patient.

d. In addition to the reports required in section 5 of P.L.1996, c.102 (C. 26:2H-7.8), an acute care hospital with a subacute care unit shall file an annual report with the Department of Health demonstrating compliance with the provisions of this section. The report shall include information on the number of patients who were admitted to the hospital’s subacute care unit when the admission was contrary to the recommendation of a physician with specialized training or experience in rehabilitation, provided however, that the recommendation of the physician was for immediate placement of the patient, that is, within 24-hours, in a licensed comprehensive rehabilitation hospital or an acute care hospital that has licensed comprehensive rehabilitation beds. The report also shall include information on the number of patients admitted to the hospital’s subacute care unit pursuant to subsection c. of this section because the patient could not be readmitted to a skilled nursing home.

e. The commissioner shall develop a procedure to assess an acute care hospital with a hospital subacute care unit’s compliance with the provisions of this section and section 3 of this act.

f. Failure to comply with the provisions of this section or section 3 of this act may result in the suspension or revocation of a hospital subacute care license.

g. If an acute care hospital which has a subacute care unit plans to transfer a patient from the hospital to the subacute care unit, the hospital shall discharge the patient from the hospital and admit the patient to the subacute care unit. Each admission to a subacute care unit shall be subject to a $35 health care quality fee to be paid to the Department of Health, the revenues from which shall be deposited in a dedicated fund to be established by the commissioner, and designated as the “Health Care Quality Monitoring Fund.”

L.1996,c.102,s.4.