D. The proposed services are consistent with the orderly and economic development of health facilities and health resources for the State as demonstrated by:

(1) The impact of the project on total health care expenditures after taking into account, to the extent practical, both the costs and benefits of the project and the competing demands in the local service area and statewide for available resources for health care;

(2) The availability of state funds to cover any increase in state costs associated with utilization of the project's services; and

(3) The likelihood that more effective, more accessible or less costly alternative technologies or methods of service delivery may become available.

In making a determination under this subsection, the commissioner shall use data available in the state health plan under section 253, data from the Maine Health Data Organization established in chapter 1683 and other information available to the commissioner.__Particular weight must be given to information that indicates that the proposed health services are innovations in high quality health care delivery, that the proposed health services are not reasonably available in the proposed area and that the facility proposing the new health services is designed to provide excellent quality health care.

SUMMARY

This bill requires that applications for certificates of need be judged in reference to the state health plan, data from the Maine Health Data Organization and other data available to the Commissioner of Human Services. It requires that particular weight be given to information that the proposed health care services are innovations in high quality health care delivery and that the facility proposing the new health services is designed to provide excellent quality health care.