relative to supporting the preferred method of communication of an individual with a communication disability and relative to transfers from freestanding hospital emergency facilities.
What changed between versions
The bill's scope expanded from only addressing communication disability rights to also covering patient transfers from freestanding hospital emergency facilities to acute care hospitals, as reflected in the new title and a new Section 4 amending RSA 151.
A new Purpose section (Section 3) was added stating the intent to protect patient safety, ensure transfers are clinically justified, and prevent practices that undermine community hospitals through coercive or exclusive transfer arrangements.
New definitions were added for 'freestanding hospital emergency facility' (FHEF), 'parent hospital,' 'clinically appropriate,' 'transfer,' and 'medically necessary' in new RSA 151:54.
New transfer standards (RSA 151:55) require that transfers be based primarily on clinical appropriateness, patient safety, continuity of care, and patient choice; that patients be informed of clinically appropriate receiving hospitals; and that no FHEF may condition treatment or transfer on selecting a hospital based on ownership or affiliation.
The short title 'Grace's Law' was narrowed to apply only to Section 2 (the communication disability provisions) rather than the entire act, since the bill now covers two distinct subjects.
The House version's effective date provision ('This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage') was removed in the Senate version and replaced with the new Purpose and transfer sections.
