§2009.2. Definitions

            For the purposes of R.S. 40:2009.1 through 2009.19, unless the context otherwise requires:

            (1) "Department" shall mean the Louisiana Department of Health.

            (2) "Health care facility" means any provider of health services which is approved to receive Medicaid payments or which is a licensed nursing home.

            (3) "Nursing facility", "nursing home", or "home" means a private home, institution, building, residence, or other place serving two or more persons who are not related by blood or marriage to the operator, whether operated for profit or not, and including those places operated by a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana, which undertakes, through its ownership or management, to provide maintenance, personal care, or nursing for persons who, by reason of illness, physical infirmity, or age, are unable to properly care for themselves. The term does not include the following:

            (a) A home, institution, or other place operated by the federal government or agency thereof, or by the state of Louisiana.

            (b) A hospital, sanitarium, or other institution whose principal activity or business is the care and treatment of persons suffering from tuberculosis or from mental diseases.

            (c) A hospital, sanitarium, or other medical institution whose principal activity or business is the diagnosis, care, and treatment of human illness through the maintenance and operation of organized facilities therefor.

            (d) Any municipal, parish, or private child welfare agency, maternity hospital, or lying-in home required by law to be licensed by some other department or agency.

            (e) Any sanitarium or institution conducted by and for Christian Scientists who rely on the practice of Christian Science for treatment and healing.

            (f) Any nonprofit congregate housing program which promotes independent living by providing assistance with daily living activities such as cooking, eating, dressing, getting out of bed, and the like to persons living in a shared group environment who do not require the medical supervision and nursing assistance provided by nursing homes. No congregate housing program, except those licensed or operated by the state of Louisiana, shall do any of the following:

            (i) Use the term "nursing home" or any other term implying that it is a licensed health care facility.

            (ii) Administer medications or otherwise provide any other nursing or medical service.

            (4) "Office" means either the office of licensing and certification or the office of family services to which the complaint has been referred by the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.

            (5) "Person" means a natural person or persons, firm, partnership, association or corporation.

            Such regulations shall require that nursing homes for which plans are approved, constructed after January 1, 1978, shall comply with the applicable Life Safety Code, in accordance with such federal regulations promulgated pursuant of Title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) as may be in force at the time the plans are approved.

            (6) "Secretary" means the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.

            (7) "Unit" means the Medicaid fraud control unit created within the office of criminal law of the Department of Justice and which is certified by the secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare or its successor.

            Added by Acts 1958, No. 188, §1. Amended by 1964, No. 170, §3; Acts 1977, No. 680, §7; Acts 1978, No. 687, §1, eff. July 12, 1978; Acts 1982, No. 656, §1; Acts 2016, No. 311, §2, eff. June 2, 2016; Acts 2018, No. 206, §4.