§ 2951 — Definitions

§ 2951. Definitions. For the purposes of this article:\n 1. "Rural area" shall mean any county with less than two hundred\nthousand population or any town which has a population of less than two\nhundred persons per square mile or, if approved by the commissioner, any\ntown which has a population of less than two hundred fifty persons per\nsquare mile.\n 2. "Rural health network" shall mean an affiliation of health care\nproviders serving a rural area, pursuant to a contract, joint or\ncooperative agreement, or organized pursuant to the not-for-profit\ncorporation law and approved pursuant to subdivision fourteen of section\ntwenty-eight hundred one-a of this chapter, which provides or arranges\nfor the provision of health care services pursuant to a network plan to\nresidents of a rural area or the provision of administrative or\nmanagement services among such health care providers. Such health care\nservices may include, but need not be limited to: acute and tertiary\ncare; medical/surgical care; pre-hospital emergency services; swing bed\ncare; mental health and substance abuse services; physical medicine and\nrehabilitation; primary and preventive care; home health and skilled\nnursing care; laboratory, radiological or other diagnostic services;\nhospice; respite care; illness prevention; or any other outpatient or\nrelated services responding to community need or for the purpose of\nimproving community health status. Such administrative and management\nservices may include, but need not be limited to: emergency medical\nservices or other professional training; credentialing, payroll,\npurchasing and billing services; recruitment of qualified professionals;\ninformation management services; medical transportation; quality\nassurance; risk management; peer review; electronic data sharing; and\nmanaged care systems; performance of studies; planning; and solicitation\nand acceptance of grants, and receipt of reimbursement for planning and\ncoordination of services and coordination of experimental and other\npayment methods, such as global budget, pooling arrangements, or\ncapitation payments for inpatient hospital services and ambulatory care\nservices provided by the component entities of the network.\n 3. "Network plan" shall mean a written plan prepared by a rural health\nnetwork or rural providers planning to form a rural health network, with\nthe involvement of consumers, submitted initially and updated\nperiodically as needed, to the commissioner for approval to receive\ngrant funds pursuant to section twenty-nine hundred fifty-two of this\narticle.\n 4. "Upgraded diagnostic and treatment center" shall mean a diagnostic\nand treatment center established pursuant to article twenty-eight of\nthis chapter which has received such designation pursuant to section\ntwenty-nine hundred fifty-six of this article.\n