New Hampshire SB 613: relative to access to crash data.

Bill Text

SB 613 - AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE

03/26/2026 1177s

2026 SESSION

 26-2215

 09/06

SENATE BILL 613

AN ACT relative to licensing requirements for health care facilities established within a 15 mile radius of a critical access hospital and relative to transfers from freestanding hospital emergency facilities.

SPONSORS: Sen. Prentiss, Dist 5; Sen. Gannon, Dist 23; Sen. Rosenwald, Dist 13; Sen. Fenton, Dist 10; Sen. Perkins Kwoka, Dist 21; Sen. Watters, Dist 4; Sen. Long, Dist 20; Sen. Altschiller, Dist 24; Sen. Reardon, Dist 15

COMMITTEE: Health and Human Services

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AMENDED ANALYSIS

 This bill:

 I. Requires a health care facility to provide certified, written notice to a critical access hospital if the facility will be located within a 15 mile radius of the critical access hospital.

 II. Establishes standards governing the transfer of patients from freestanding hospital emergency facilities to acute care hospitals to ensure that such transfers are based primarily on clinical appropriateness, patient safety, continuity of care, and patient choice.

 III. Bans coercive or exclusive transfer practices, reinforces EMTALA requirements, and gives the state authority to enforce violations.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

 Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

 Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

03/26/2026 1177s 26-2215

 09/06

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty-Six

AN ACT relative to licensing requirements for health care facilities established within a 15 mile radius of a critical access hospital and relative to transfers from freestanding hospital emergency facilities.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 1 Title. Sections 1 and 2 of this act shall be known as the "Rural Health Care System Stabilization Act". 

 2 Residential Care and Health Facility Licensing; License or Registration Required. RSA 151:4-a, II(a) is repealed and reenacted to read as follows:

 II.(a) Any person or entity proposing to establish an ambulatory surgical center, emergency medical care center, hospital, birthing center, drop-in or walk-in care center, dialysis center, or special health care service within a radius of 15 miles of the primary physical location of a New Hampshire hospital certified as a critical access hospital pursuant to 42 C.F.R 485.610(b) and (c), shall give written notice of the intent to establish the health care facility within a 15 mile radius of the critical access hospital. The notice shall include a description of the facility and any health care services to be established and shall be sent by certified mail to the chief executive of the critical access hospital.

 3 Purpose. The purpose of section 4 of this act is to protect patient safety and continuity of care by ensuring that transfers from freestanding hospital emergency facilities are based on clinical appropriateness, patient needs, and regional access to hospital services. Section 4 of this act further seeks to prevent practices that may undermine community hospitals through coercive or exclusive transfer arrangements that are not clinically justified. 

 4 New Subdivision; Transfers from Freestanding Hospital Emergency Facilities. Amend RSA 151 by inserting after section 53 the following new subdivision: 

Transfers from Freestanding Hospital Emergency Facilities

 151:54 Definitions. In this subdivision: 

 I. “Freestanding hospital emergency facility” or “FHEF” means a facility licensed under this chapter that is geographically separate from an acute care hospital and provides emergency medical services on behalf of, or in affiliation with, a parent hospital. 

 II. “Parent hospital” means an acute care hospital that owns, controls, or operates a freestanding hospital emergency facility, directly or indirectly. 

 III. “Clinically appropriate” means consistent with the judgment of the treating physician, the patient’s medical condition, and applicable regional emergency medical services protocols. 

 IV. “Transfer” means the movement of a patient from a freestanding hospital emergency facility to another licensed hospital or health care facility for the purpose of providing continued medical care, and shall not include discharge to home or referral for non-emergent outpatient services. 

 V. “Medically necessary” means determined by the treating physician or qualified practitioner to be required to prevent or address a material deterioration of the patient’s medical condition, consistent with applicable standards of care. 

 151:55 Transfe