NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1971 SESSION

CHAPTER 539
HOUSE BILL 870

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TO LICENSE HOME HEALTH AGENCIES WHICH WOULD NOT OTHERWISE BE REGULATED SO AS TO PERMIT HOME HEALTH AGENCIES TO BE CERTIFIED FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE FEDERAL HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1.  (a) Definitions. — For the purposes of this section, a home health agency is a private organization, whether owned or operated by one or more persons or legal entities, which furnishes or offers to furnish home health services.
"Home health services" means items and services furnished to an individual by a home health agency, or by others under arrangements with such others made by the agency, on a visiting basis, and except for subsection 5 below, in a place of temporary or permanent residence used as the individual's home as follows:
(1)	Part-time or intermittent nursing care provided by or under the supervision of a registered nurse.
(2)	Physical, occupational or speech therapy.
(3)	Medical social services, home health aid services, and other therapeutic services.
(4)	Medical supplies, other than drugs and biologicals, and the use of medical appliances.
(5)	Any of the foregoing items and services which are provided on an out‑patient basis under arrangements made by the home health agency at a hospital or nursing home facility or rehabilitation center and the furnishing of which involves the use of equipment of such a nature that the items and services cannot readily be made available to the individual in his home, or which are furnished at such facility while he is there to receive any such item or service, but not including transportation of the individual in connection with any such item or service.
(b)	Licensing of home health agencies. — The State Board of Health shall develop and adopt rules and regulations containing standards for the care, treatment, health, safety, welfare, and comfort of patients in home health agencies and for the maintenance and operation of home health agencies which will promote safe and adequate care and treatment of the patients. The Board is authorized and directed to make inspections of such agencies and issue, deny or revoke annual licenses in accordance with its rules and regulations adopted under this section. The rules and regulations shall include, when appropriate, but shall not be limited to, provisions requiring the agency to have policies established by a professional group, including at least one licensed physician and one registered nurse, provisions governing the services the agency provides, provisions for the supervision of services by a licensed physician or registered nurse as appropriate, and maintenance of clinical records on all patients, including a plan of treatment prescribed by a licensed physician.
(c)	Decisions as to licensing; hearings; appeals. — The Board may adopt regulations providing for decisions as to granting, denying or revoking licenses by an administrative employee of the Board. The Board shall adopt regulations for providing a hearing before the Board or its designee whenever a hearing is requested by one who has been denied a license or has had his license revoked. The final decision after any appeal may be made by the Board or by the Board's designee as provided by the rules of the Board. Appeals from the hearing decisions shall be to the Superior Court of Wake County and trial shall be before the judge without a jury.
Sec. 2.  A new subsection is hereby added at the end of G.S. 130-9 as follows:
"(f)	The State Board of Health shall have the power and duty to inspect and license home health agencies as provided by law."
Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 10th day of June, 1971.