Whereas, current law imposes a tax on hospitals in this State, regardless of size of the hospitals or the amount of MaineCare revenue received by those hospitals; and

Whereas, this tax imposes a hardship on some hospitals, which may lead to the closure of, or reduction of services provided by, those hospitals; and

Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §2894 is enacted to read:

§2894.__Exemption

Effective June 1, 2005, an acute care, noncritical access hospital with fewer than 70 licensed beds and MaineCare revenue representing less than 7% of gross patient service revenue during state fiscal year 2003-04 is not subject to the hospital tax imposed by section 2892.__The Department of Health and Human Services shall take appropriate steps to apply for approvals or waivers that are necessary from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in connection with this provision to satisfy the requirements of 42 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 433, Subpart B and shall adopt rules necessary to implement this provision.__Rules adopted pursuant to this section are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2- A.

Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this Act takes effect when approved.

SUMMARY

This bill exempts from the tax imposed on hospitals of 2.23% of net operating revenue those hospitals that are acute care, noncritical access hospitals with fewer than 70 licensed beds and MaineCare revenue representing less than 7% of gross patient services revenue.