HB 145 Summary: Recovery Care Services

• Creates a new category of licensed healthcare facility called "recovery care centers" designed to provide postsurgical and postdiagnostic care for patients who do not require acute hospitalization and are expected to have uncomplicated recovery.

• Establishes admission requirements stating patients must be certified as medically stable by a physician, admitted within 72 hours of discharge from a hospital or ambulatory surgery center, and restricted to those needing recovery care services excluding intensive care, coronary care, or critical care.

• Requires recovery care centers to establish emergency care and transfer protocols including transportation arrangements and referral agreements with at least one hospital, and to maintain discharge planning procedures.

• Applies the Health Care Licensing Procedures Act to recovery care centers with exemptions from certain minimum licensure requirements, and requires the Agency for Health Care Administration to adopt separate standards for care including dietetic services, medication procedures, and pharmacy services.

• Effective July 1, 2017, with conforming amendments to cross-references in related statutes regarding children's specialty hospitals and specialty psychiatric hospitals.