(a)  Upon receipt of an application for a license, the licensing agency shall issue a license if the applicant and healthcare facility meet the requirements established under this chapter and any rules and regulations that may be established in accordance with the requirements established under this chapter. A license issued under the provisions of this section shall be the property of the state and loaned to the licensee, and it shall be kept posted in a conspicuous place on the licensed premises. Each license shall be issued only for the premises and persons named in the application, and shall not be transferable or assignable except with the written approval of the licensing agency. Home nursing-care providers and home-care providers operating under a single license may establish branch offices under that same single license and that license shall be maintained and posted in the central office.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-6

  • Change in owner: means :

    (i)  In the case of a healthcare facility that is a partnership, the removal, addition, or substitution of a partner that results in a new partner acquiring a controlling interest in the partnership;

    (ii)  In the case of a healthcare facility that is an unincorporated, solo proprietorship, the transfer of the title and property to another person;

    (iii)  In the case of a healthcare facility that is a corporation:

    (A)  A sale, lease exchange, or other disposition of all, or substantially all, of the property and assets of the corporation; or

    (B)  A merger of the corporation into another corporation; or

    (C)  The consolidation or two (2) or more corporations, resulting in the creation of a new corporation; or

    (D)  In the case of a healthcare facility that is a business corporation, any transfer of corporate stock that results in a new person acquiring a controlling interest in the corporation; or

    (E)  In the case of a healthcare facility that is a nonbusiness corporation, any change in membership that results in a new person acquiring a controlling vote in the corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2

  • Healthcare facility: means any institutional health-service provider, facility, or institution, place, building, agency, or portion thereof, whether a partnership or corporation, whether public or private, whether organized for profit or not, used, operated, or engaged in providing healthcare services, including, but not limited to: hospitals; nursing facilities; home nursing-care provider (which shall include skilled nursing services and may also include activities allowed as a home-care provider or as a nursing service agency); home-care provider (which may include services such as personal care or homemaker services); rehabilitation centers; kidney disease treatment centers; health maintenance organizations; freestanding emergency-care facilities as defined in this section, and facilities providing surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization (surgi-centers); hospice care, and physician ambulatory-surgery centers and podiatry ambulatory-surgery centers providing surgical treatment. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2
  • Licensing agency: means the Rhode Island state department of health. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-2
  • Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.

(b)  Any change in owner, operator, or lessee of a licensed healthcare facility, (except for single-practice physician ambulatory-surgery centers, multi-practice physician ambulatory-surgery centers, single-practice podiatry ambulatory-surgery centers and multi-practice podiatry ambulatory-surgery centers as defined in subsections (17) and (18) of chapter 17, section 2) which license shall be transferable or assignable by decision of the licensing agency as shall be provided by regulation, shall require prior review by the health services council and approval of the licensing agency as a condition precedent to the transfer, assignment, or issuance of a new license. Issuance of the license may be made subject to any condition; provided, that no condition may be made unless it directly relates to the statutory purpose expressed in § 23-17-3 or to the review criteria set forth in § 23-17-14.3. This shall not limit the authority of the licensing agency to require correction of conditions or defects which existed prior to the proposed change of owner, operator, or lessee and of which notice had been given to the healthcare facility by the licensing agency.

History of Section.
P.L. 1932, ch. 1956, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 259, § 1; P.L. 1948, ch. 2112, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 259, § 6; P.L. 1949, ch. 2387, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-16-6; P.L. 1972, ch. 72, § 1; P.L. 1978, ch. 269, § 5; P.L. 1979, ch. 39, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-17-6; P.L. 1983, ch. 187, § 1; P.L. 1984, ch. 134, § 1; P.L. 1996, ch. 310, § 2; P.L. 1999, ch. 136, § 2; P.L. 2002, ch. 399, § 1; P.L. 2009, ch. 197, § 2; P.L. 2009, ch. 287, § 2.