Regulations last checked for updates: Nov 22, 2024

Title 42 - Public Health last revised: Nov 19, 2024
§ 124.2 - Definitions.

As used in this subpart:

(a) Act means the Public Health Service Act, as amended.

(b) Construction means construction of new buildings and initial equipment of such buildings and, in any case in which it will help to provide a service not previously provided in the community, equipment of any buildings. It includes architect's fees, but excludes the cost of off-site improvements and, except with respect to public health centers, the cost of the acquistion of land.

(c) Cost means the amount found by the Secretary to be necessary for construction or modernization under a project, except that such term does not include any amount found by the Secretary to be attributable to expansion of the bed capacity of any facility.

(d) Equipment means those items which are necessary for the functioning of the facility but does not include items of current operating expense such as food, fuel, pharmaceuticals, dressings, paper, printed forms, and housekeeping supplies.

(e) Facility for long-term care means a facility (including a skilled nursing care or intermediate care facility), providing inpatient care for convalescent or chronic disease patients who require skilled nursing or intermediate care and related medical services:

(1) Which is a hospital (other than a hospital primarily for the care and treatment of mentally ill or tuberculosis patients) or is operated in connection with a hospital, or

(2) In which such care and medical services are prescribed by, or are performed under the general direction of, persons licensed to practice medicine or surgery in the State.

(f) Health systems agency means an agency which has been conditionally or fully designated pursuant to section 1515 of the Act and 42 CFR part 122.

(g) Hospital includes general, tuberculosis, and other types of hospitals, and related facilities such as laboratories, outpatient departments, nurses' home facilities, extended care facilities, facilities related to programs for home health services, self-care units, and central service facilities, operated in connection with hospitals, and education or training facilities for health professional personnel operated as an integral part of a hospital, but does not include any facility furnishing primarily domiciliary care.

(h) Major repair means those repairs to an existing building, excluding routine maintenance, which restore the building to a sound state, the cost of which is a least 10 percent of plant value or $200,000, whichever is greater. Plant value means the historic book value of the building at the time of application for assistance under this subpart.

(i) Medical facility means a hospital, public health center, outpatient medical facility, rehabilitation facility, or a facility for long-term care.

(j) Modernization means the alteration, expansion (excluding expansion which increases bed capacity), major repair, remodeling, replacement, and renovation of existing buildings (including initial equipment thereof), and the replacement of obsolete equipment of existing buildings, including energy conservation projects.

(k) Outpatient medical facility means a facility, located in or apart from a hospital, for the diagnosis or diagnosis and treatment of ambulatory patients (including ambulatory inpatients):

(1) Which is operated in connection with a hospital, or

(2) In which patient care of a specialized nature (such as in an eye clinic, dental clinic, or ambulatory surgical center) is provided under the professional supervision of persons licensed to practice medicine or surgery in the State, or in the case of dental diagnosis or treatment, under the professional supervision of persons licensed to practice dentistry in the State, or

(3) Which offers to patients not requiring hospitalization the services of licensed physicians in various medical specialties, and which provides to its patients a reasonably full range of diagnostic and treatment services.

(l) Public health center means a publicly owned facility for the provision of public health services, including related facilities such as laboratories, clinics, and administrative offices operated in connection with such a facility.

(m) Quasi-public corporation means a private, nonprofit corporation which has been formally given one or more governmental powers by a general-purpose unit of government to enable it to carry out its work.

(n) Rehabilitation facility means a facility which is operated for the primary purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of disabled persons through an integrated program of medical evaluation and services, and psychological, social, or vocational evaluation and services, under competent professional supervision, and in the case of which the major portion of the required evaluation and services is furnished within the facility; and either the facility is operated in connection with a hospital, or all medical and related health services are prescribed by, or are under the general direction of persons licensed to practice medicine or surgery in the State.

(o) Secretary means the Secretary of Health and Human Services and any other officer or employee of the Department of Health and Human Services to whom the authority involved has been delegated.

(p) State means any one of the several States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.

(q) State health planning and development agency or State Agency means the agency of a State government which has been conditionally or fully designated under section 1521 of the Act and 42 CFR part 123.

(r) Title means a fee simple, or such other estate or interest in the project site (including a leasehold on which the rental does not exceed 4 percent of the value of the land) as the Secretary finds sufficient to assure undisturbed use and possession for the purpose of construction or modernization and operation of the project for a period of not less than twenty years.

(s) Urban or rural poverty area means a census tract, census county division, or minor civil division, as applicable, in which the percentage of the residents with incomes below the poverty level, as defined by the Secretary of Commerce is not less than the percentage derived in accordance with the following sentence. This percentage shall be derived so that the percentage of the total population of the United States residing in all such areas is equal to the percentage of the total population of the United States with incomes below such poverty level, plus five percent.

authority: Secs. 215, 1602, 1625, Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 216,300o,300r,unless
source: 42 FR 62270, Dec. 9, 1977, unless otherwise noted.
cite as: 42 CFR 124.2