§ 6306. Collaboration and shared service agreements
(a) In order to further the State’s goals of facilitating universal access to a full range
of quality home health services at the lowest practicable cost throughout the State,
the home health agencies are authorized and encouraged by the General Assembly to
enter into and perform the following types of cooperative arrangements among two or
more agencies:
(1) agreements or understandings to pool or share one or more administrative functions,
services, or expenses;
(2) agreements or understandings to pool or share certain staffing, including skilled
nursing and other personnel;
(3) group purchasing arrangements designed to obtain the benefits of volume discounts
and achieve other cost savings and efficiencies for the benefit of consumers;
(4) agreements with managed care plans or other third-party payers, at their request and
on a nonexclusive basis, to provide their members with prescribed home health services
on discounted groupwide or statewide rates, terms, and conditions;
(5) agreements or understandings to provide home health services, on an occasional or
sporadic basis, to patients located in the designated service area of another home
health agency due to special needs or other exceptional circumstances preventing the
prompt and efficient servicing of such patients by that other home health agency or
where otherwise necessary to achieve the purposes of this subchapter; and
(6) agreements related to the sharing of information and technology.
(b) No agreement or understanding of the types specified in subsection (a) of this section,
which are entered into subsequent to June 13, 2005, shall be valid or effective unless
and until it has received the written approval of the Commissioner. Any such agreement
or understanding shall be submitted to the Commissioner for approval or disapproval
within 30 days of execution, and the Commissioner shall have 90 days from receipt
of such filing within which to approve or disapprove the agreement.
(c) Any and all agreements or understandings of the types specified in subsection (a)
of this section, which have been entered into prior to June 13, 2005, shall be valid
and effective for 12 months following June 13, 2005 but not thereafter, unless they
have received within that 12-month period the written approval of the Commissioner.
The Commissioner shall have 90 days from receipt of such filing within which to approve
or disapprove the agreement.
(d) In rendering a decision on any application submitted under subsection (b) or (c) of
this section, the Commissioner shall actively scrutinize the terms of the proposed
agreement and consider all relevant facts and circumstances surrounding the agreement,
as determined in the Commissioner’s discretion and pursuant to procedures specified
by rule by the Commissioner. The Commissioner shall approve the agreement only if
the Commissioner determines that it is in the public interest and is consistent with
the purposes and policies set forth in this subchapter, including ensuring that all
residents of the State have access to quality home health services delivered in an
efficient and cost-effective manner.
(e) Agreements or understandings to pool or share certain staffing, including skilled
nursing and other personnel, entered into on a temporary basis, as that term may be
defined by the Commissioner, to meet the particular needs of an agency’s patients
and avoid temporary gaps in services shall be valid and effective without the necessity
of obtaining approval by the Commissioner under subsection (b) or (c) of this section.
(f) In authorizing the agreements and understandings of the types specified in subsection
(a) of this section and the activities conducted under those agreements and understandings,
the General Assembly intends that its action have the effect of permitting and granting
State action immunity for any actions that might otherwise be considered to be in
violation of State or federal antitrust laws, in order to accomplish the public policy
objectives of this subchapter. (Added 2005, No. 57, § 8, eff. June 13, 2005; amended 2021, No. 20, § 338.)