105 CMR, § 141.020
The following terms as used in 105 CMR 141.000 shall be interpreted as follows, unless the context or subject matter clearly requires a different interpretation:
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) means the federal requirements governing clinical laboratory testing pursuant to 42 CFR Part 493 .
Commissioner means the Commissioner of Public Health or the Commissioner's.
Department means the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Direct Service Volunteer shall mean a lay or professional person who offers services to a hospice without compensation and whose primary volunteer activities are contact with and support of hospice patients/families.
Reimbursement for a volunteer's expenses in providing services shall not be considered compensation. A direct service volunteer is considered one of the hospice's personnel.
Governing Body shall mean any of the following:
(1) The board of directors or trustees of a hospice which is a not-for-profit corporation;
(2) The board of directors or trustees of a hospice which is a for-profit corporation;
(3) The proprietor or owners of a hospice which is a solely owned business or partnership; or
(4) The policy making body of a hospice which is operated by a government agency, or the policy making body or agency head of the government agency.
Hospice or Hospice Program means palliative and supportive care and other services provided by an interdisciplinary team under the direction of an identifiable hospice administration to terminally ill patients with a limited life expectancy and their families. Services shall be provided to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs experienced during the course of their illness, death, and bereavement at home, in the community, and in facilities. Such services shall include, but not be limited to, physician's services, nursing care provided by or under the supervision of a registered nurse, social services, volunteer services, and counseling services provided by professional or volunteer staff under professional supervision. Hospice is a centrally coordinated program that ensures continuity and consistency of care provided by a hospice program directly through an inpatient facility operating under its hospice license or through an agreement. For the purposes of 105 CMR 141.000, a hospice program shall not include a hospice program operated by the Commonwealth or the United States government.
Hospice Inpatient Facility means a palliative care facility that cares solely for hospice patients requiring short-term, general inpatient or respite care and is owned and operated directly by a hospice program under the license issued to that program pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111, § 57D.
Inpatient Care or Services means short-term, general inpatient care provided either through a contract arrangement in a hospital or long term care facility or directly by a hospice program in its hospice inpatient facility to provide pain control and symptom management that cannot be accomplished in the home or community.
Licensee means any person holding a license to operate a hospice. In the case of a licensee which is not a natural person, the term Licensee shall also mean any shareholder owning 5% or more of any class of the outstanding stock; any limited partner owning 5% or more of the partnership interests and any general partner of a partnership licensee; any trustee of any trust licensee; any sole proprietor of any licensee which is a sole proprietorship; any mortgagee in possession; and any executor or administrator of any licensee which is an estate.
Palliative Care means the care of patients diagnosed with progressive disease for whom the focus is the relief of suffering. Palliative care promotes optimal relief of pain and other physical symptoms and enhances the patient and family's quality of life through support for emotional, social and spiritual priorities. A hospice inpatient facility shall not directly provide care such as surgery that is commonly considered acute care appropriately provided solely by a hospital licensed to provide medical/surgical services.
Patient is an individual in the terminal stage of illness who, alone or in conjunction with a family member or members, has voluntarily requested admission and been accepted into a hospice.
Patient/Family is the unit identified as the recipient of hospice care which consists of the patient and those individuals who are closely linked with the patient including the immediate family, the primary care giver and individuals with significant personal ties.
Pediatric Patient means a person younger than 19 years old.
Physician means an individual registered by the Board of Registration in Medicine under M.G.L. c.112, § 2 as a qualified physician.
Primary Care Giver means a person designated by the patient who is responsible for the patient's care and support in the home on a 24-hour basis.
Primary Care Provider means a health care professional qualified to provide general medical care for common health care problems, who supervises, coordinates, prescribes or otherwise provides or proposes health care services, initiates referrals for specialist care and maintains continuity of care within the scope of practice.
Registered Nurse means an individual registered under M.G.L. c. 112, § 74.
Residential Hospice Services means hospice services provided by a hospice to its patients at a location under the control of the hospice, other than a hospice inpatient facility, or in a patient's home or nursing home, rest home or hospital licensed by the Department or operated by the Commonwealth.
Respite Care means hospice services provided in a patient's home, hospital, long term care facility or hospice inpatient facility to relieve temporarily the patient's family or other caregivers from unforeseen emergencies or the daily demands of caring for the patient.
Social Worker means an individual who is currently licensed to practice social work in Massachusetts pursuant to M.G.L. c. 112, § 131 under the licensure categories of Licensed Independent Practitioner of Clinical Social Work, or Licensed Certified Social Worker or Licensed Social Worker.
Transfer of Ownership means but is not limited to the following transfers of ownership of a hospice:
(1) a transfer of a majority interest in the ownership of a hospice;
(2) in the case of a for profit corporation, transfer of a majority of any class of the stock thereof;
(3) in the case of a partnership, transfer of a majority of the partnership interest;
(4) in the case of a trust, change of the trustee or a majority of trustees; or
(5) in the case of a non-profit corporation, such changes in the corporate membership and/or trustees as the Department determines to constitute a shift in control of the hospice.
A transfer of ownership shall also be deemed to have occurred where foreclosure proceedings have been instituted by a mortgagee in possession.
Transfer of Ownership also means any change in the ownership interest or structure of the hospice or the hospice's organization or parent organization(s) that the Commissioner determines to effect a change in control of the operation of the hospice.
105 CMR, § 141.020