2752

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 736

of need is not required as a condition to obtaining a
certificate to operate a freestanding hospice care
facility; providing for the duration of the
certificate; providing a fee for the application;
providing that the Secretary must promulgate rules and
regulations in consultation with the Hospice
Reimbursement Study Commission to carry out the
provisions of the subtitle; and setting minimum
standards for freestanding hospice care facilities.

BY adding to

Article 43 - Health

Section 948 through 951, inclusive, to be under the new
subtitle "Freestanding Hospice Care Facilities"
Annotated Code of Maryland
(1980 Replacement Volume and 1980 Supplement)

Preamble

The General Assembly hereby finds that there are
individuals who, because of terminal illness, greatly
benefit from a residential care environment and who are
better able to function through symptom control care which
can be provided in a hospice setting. There are individuals
who, as they approach death, desire and benefit from living
in a residential environment with other individuals who are
also terminally ill. Such individuals are able to function
without the intensive care and services normally associated
with an institutional environment. The essential features
of the hospice care environment, established for these
individuals, are the absence of lifesaving procedures and
monitoring devices which contravene an individual's desire
to achieve dignity in dying.

The General Assembly finds that hospice care facilities
should be distinguished from traditional patient care
institutions to accomplish these objectives; now, therefore,

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
be repealed, amended, or enacted to read as follows:

Article 43 - Health

FREESTANDING HOSPICE CARE FACILITIES

948.

(A)  IN THIS SUBTITLE THE FOLLOWING WORDS HAVE THE
MEANINGS INDICATED.

(B)  "FREESTANDING HOSPICE CARE FACILITY" OR "FACILITY"
MEANS A SEPARATE FACILITY HOUSING TWO TO EIGHT NONRELATED
PERSONS WHICH PROVIDES AN ORGANIZED, MEDICALLY DIRECTED,
NURSE COORDINATED, INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM DESIGNED TO