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Alaska Statutes.

Title 47. Welfare, Social Services and Institutions

Chapter 32. Centralized Licensing and Related Administrative Procedures

Section 900. Definitions.

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AS 47.32.900. Definitions.

In this chapter,

(1) "ambulatory surgical center" means a facility that

(A) is not a part of a hospital or a physician's general medical practice; and

(B) operates primarily for the purpose of providing surgical services to patients who do not require hospitalization;

(2) "assisted living home"

(A) means a residential facility that serves three or more adults who are not related to the owner by blood or marriage, or that receives state or federal payment for services regardless of the number of adults served; the department shall consider a facility to be an assisted living home if the facility

(i) provides housing and food services to its residents;

(ii) offers to provide or obtain for its residents assistance with activities of daily living;

(iii) offers personal assistance as defined in AS 47.33.990 ; or

(iv) provides or offers any combination of these services;

(B) does not include

(i) a correctional facility;

(ii) an emergency shelter;

(iii) a program licensed under AS 47.10.310 for runaway minors;

(iv) a type of entity listed in AS 47.32.010 (b)(5), (8), (9), (10), (11), or (12);

(3) "child placement agency" means an agency that arranges for placement of a child

(A) in a foster home, residential child care facility, or adoptive home; or

(B) for guardianship purposes;

(4) "commissioner" means the commissioner of health and social services;

(5) "department" means the Department of Health and Social Services;

(6) "entity" means an entity listed in AS 47.32.010 (b);

(7) "foster home" means a place where the adult head of household provides 24-hour care on a continuing basis to one or more children who are apart from their parents;

(8) "free-standing birth center" means a facility that is not a part of a hospital and that provides a birth service to maternal clients;

(9) "frontier extended stay clinic" means a rural health clinic that is authorized to provide 24-hour care to one or more individuals;

(10) "home health agency" means a public agency or private organization, or a subdivision of a public agency or private organization, that primarily engages in providing skilled nursing services in combination with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, or services provided by a home health aide to an individual in the individual's home, an assisted living home, or another residential setting; in this paragraph,

(A) "public agency" means an agency operated by the state or a local government;

(B) "subdivision" means a component of a multi-function facility or home health agency, such as the home health care division of a hospital or the division of a public agency, that independently meets the requirements for licensure as a home health agency;

(11) "hospice" or "agency providing hospice services or operating hospice programs" means a program that provides hospice services;

(12) "hospice services" means a range of interdisciplinary palliative and supportive services

(A) provided in a home or at an inpatient facility to persons who are terminally ill and to those persons' families in order to meet their physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual needs; and

(B) based on hospice philosophy; for purposes of this subparagraph, "hospice philosophy" means a philosophy that is life affirming, recognizes dying as a normal process of living, focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life, neither hastens nor postpones death, strengthens the client's role in making informed decisions about care, and stresses the delivery of services in the least restrictive setting possible and with the least amount of technology necessary by volunteers and professionals who are trained to help a client with the physical, social, psychological, spiritual, and emotional issues related to terminal illness so that the client can feel better prepared for the death that is to come;

(13) "hospital" means a public or private institution or establishment devoted primarily to providing diagnosis, treatment, or care over a continuous period of 24 hours each day for two or more unrelated individuals suffering from illness, physical or mental disease, injury or deformity, or any other condition for which medical or surgical services would be appropriate; "hospital" does not include a frontier extended stay clinic;

(14) "intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded" has the meaning given in 42 C.F.R. 440.150;

(15) "licensed entity" means an entity that has a license issued under this chapter;

(16) "maternity home" means a place of residence the primary function of which is to give care, with or without compensation, to pregnant individuals, regardless of age, or that provides care, as needed, to mothers and their newborn infants;

(17) "nursing facility" means a facility that is primarily engaged in providing skilled nursing care or rehabilitative services and related services for those who, because of their mental or physical condition, require care and services above the level of room and board; "nursing facility" does not include a facility that is primarily for the care and treatment of mental diseases;

(18) "residential child care facility" means a place, staffed by employees, where one or more children who are apart from their parents receive 24-hour care on a continuing basis;

(19) "residential psychiatric treatment center" means a secure or semi-secure facility, or an inpatient program in another facility, that provides, under the direction of a physician, psychiatric diagnostic, evaluation, and treatment services on a 24-hour-a-day basis to children with severe emotional or behavioral disorders;

(20) "runaway shelter" means a facility housing a runaway child;

(21) "rural health clinic"

(A) means a facility or clinic that is authorized to provide health care services and is located in a rural area;

(B) includes a frontier extended stay clinic;

(C) does not include a rehabilitation agency or a facility primarily for the care and treatment of mental diseases.