23.18.102 APPLICATION PROCEDURE

(1) Health care facilities and physicians seeking a certificate of public advantage must apply to the department in writing and must include the following information in the application:

(a) a descriptive title;

(b) a table of contents;

(d) the name, address, and telephone number of the persons authorized to receive notices and communications with respect to the application;

(e) a verified statement signed by a responsible officer of each party to the application or, if one or more of the applicants is an individual, signed by the individual applicant, attesting to the accuracy and completeness of the enclosed information;

(f) information relating to the proposed cooperative agreement, merger, or consolidation, including, if applicable:

(i) a description of the proposed agreement or transaction, including a list of any services or products that are the subject of the proposed agreement or transaction;

(ii) a description of any consideration passing to any person under the agreement or transaction, including the amount, nature, source, and recipient;

(iii) a description of each party's contribution of capital, equipment, labor, services, or other value to the transaction, if any;

(iv) a description and summary of the financial performance of each party to the transaction for the preceding five years;

(v) identification of any other services or products that are reasonably likely to be affected by the proposed agreement or transaction;

(vi) a description of the geographic territory involved in the proposed agreement or transaction;

(vii) if the geographic territory described in item (vi) is different from the territory in which the applicants have engaged in the type of business at issue over the last five years, a description of how and why the geographic territory differs;

(viii) identification of all products or services that a substantial share of consumers would consider substitutes for any service or product that is the subject of the proposed agreement or transaction;

(ix) identification of whether any services or products of the proposed agreement or transaction are currently being offered, capable of being offered, utilized, or capable of being utilized by other providers or purchasers in the geographic territory described in item (vi) ;

(x) identification of the steps necessary, under current market and regulatory conditions, for other parties to enter the territory described in item (vi) and compete with the applicants;

(xi) a description of the previous history of dealings between the parties to the application, including, but not limited to, their relationship as competitors and any prior joint ventures or other collaborative arrangements between the parties or their principals;

(xii) a detailed explanation of the projected effects, including expected volume, change in price, and increased revenue, of the agreement or transaction on each party's current businesses, both generally as well as the aspects of the business directly involved in the proposed agreement or transaction;

(xiii) the parties' estimate of their respective present market shares and that of others affected by the proposed agreement or transaction, and projected market shares after implementation of the proposed agreement or transaction;

(xiv) identification of business plans, reports, studies, or other documents that discuss each party's projected performance in the market, business strategies, competitive analyses and financial projections, including any documents prepared in anticipation of the cooperative agreement, merger or consolidation, as well as those prepared prior to contemplation of the transaction;

(xv) a description of the parties' performance goals, including quantitative standards for achieving the objectives of:

(A) lower health care costs; or

(B) higher quality health care or greater access to health care in Montana without any undue increase in health care costs;

(xvi) a description of how the anticipated efficiencies, cost savings and other benefits from the transaction will be passed on to the consumers of health care services;

(xvii) a description of the net efficiencies likely to result from the transaction, including an analysis of anticipated cost savings resulting from the transaction and the increased costs associated with the transaction;

(xviii) a statement of whether competition among health care providers or health care facilities will be reduced as a result of the proposed agreement or transaction; whether there will be adverse impact on quality, availability, or cost of health care; whether the projected levels of cost, access to health care, or quality of health care could be achieved in the existing market without the proposed agreement or transaction; and, for each of the above, an explanation of why or why not;

(xix) a description of why the anticipated cost savings, efficiencies and other benefits from the transaction are not likely to result from existing competitive forces in the market; and

(xx) if information is not supplied under any of the above items, an explanation of why the item is not applicable to the transaction or to the parties.

(g) A copy of any proposed cooperative agreement or other merger or consolidation document must be attached to the application.

(h) A copy of any documents, reports, studies, data compilations and other materials supporting the applicants' response to the requirements of this subsection must be attached to the application.

(2) The department may waive any of the requirements in (1) that it finds, due to the nature of a particular cooperative agreement or transaction, are inapplicable to its analysis of the agreement or transaction.

(3) If the application involves an agreement with a health maintenance organization, the applicant must submit proof that the requirements of Title 33, chapter 31, MCA, have been met.

(4) The application and accompanying documents are public documents, except for any trade secrets, as defined by 30-14-402(4) , MCA, or information otherwise required by law to be kept confidential. Information in the application may be kept confidential if it is determined by the department to be proprietary or protected by personal privacy interests. If the applicants believe the application contains any information which must be kept confidential, such information must be clearly identified and duplicate applications must be submitted, one application with full information for the department's use and one redacted application available for release to the public. A written statement must accompany the application, explaining the legal basis for protection of any information as confidential.

(5) The time for action by the department as prescribed in 50-4-603(3) , MCA, does not begin to run until the application is determined by the department to be complete. The department shall act promptly to determine completeness of the application and may request any additional documents or information from the applicants necessary to make the application complete.

(6) Once the application is complete, the department shall cause notice of the application to be published in the notice section of the Montana Administrative Register and sent to any person who has requested to be placed on a list to receive notice of applications. All costs associated with publication of notice shall be borne by the applicants. A person may be placed on a list to receive notice by sending his or her name and address to: Attorney General's Office, 215 North Sanders, P.O. Box 201401, Helena, Montana, 59620-1401.

(7) Written comments with respect to the application will be accepted by the department within 30 days after the notice is published. Persons submitting comments must provide a copy of the comments to the applicants. The applicants may respond in writing to the comments within 20 days after the deadline for submitting comments. The applicants must send a copy of their response to the person submitting the comment.

History: Sec. 50-4-612 MCA; IMP, Sec. 50-4-603, 50-4-612 MCA; NEW, 1995 MAR p. 1938, Eff. 9/29/95.