ORDERS:
CONSENT ORDER FOR DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE
This
matter arose from Petitioners Hilton Head Regional Medical Center and MRI at
Belfair, LLC’s petition for a contested case hearing to determine whether the
South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control (“DHEC”) had
properly issued a non-applicability determination (“NAD”) to Respondent
Southern MRI, LLC for the acquisition of a 1.5T Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(“MRI”) unit and a 4-slice Computed Tomography (“CT”) unit. Petitioner
Hilton Head Imaging, LLC subsequently sought and was granted leave by this
Court to intervene in this matter. MRI at Belfair does not contest DHEC’s
grant of the NAD for the CT machine.
Pursuant
to 24A S.C. Code Ann. Regs. 61-15, § 102.1(f), a Certificate of Need (“CON”) is
required for “[t]he acquisition of medical equipment which is to be used for
diagnosis or treatment if the total project costs is in excess of $600,000.”
Discovery in this matter has revealed that the total project costs for the CT
machine fall under the $600,000 threshold. Pursuant to this discovery,
Petitioners Hilton Head Regional Medical Center and Hilton Head Imaging desire
to dismiss with prejudice that portion of the contested case hearing related to
the propriety of the grant of the NAD for the acquisition of the CT.
Respondents have consented to this dismissal. Because MRI at Belfair has never
contested the grant of an NAD for the CT, it is not a party to this Consent
Order.
The
undersigned parties agree only to the dismissal of the portion of the contested
case hearing related to the acquisition of the CT machine and request that the
contested case hearing regarding the propriety of the grant of the NAD for the
acquisition of the MRI go forward, unaffected by the terms of this Order.
THEREFORE,
IT IS ORDERED that Petitioners Hilton Head Regional Medical Center and Hilton
Head Imaging’s request for a contested case hearing on the propriety of the
grant of an NAD to Southern MRI for the purchase and installation of a CT
machine is dismissed with prejudice with each party bearing its own fees and
costs.
IT
IS FURTHER ORDERED that the contested case hearing regarding DHEC’s issuance of
an NAD for the purchase and installation of an MRI is unaffected by the
dismissal of the CT claims and shall proceed as scheduled by this Court.
AND
IT IS SO ORDERED.
__________________________________
Paige
J. Gossett
Administrative
Law Judge
Columbia, South Carolina
August 19, 2008
[signatures
on following page]
WE SO MOVE & CONSENT:
HILTON HEAD REGIONAL MEDICAL
CENTER
By:__________________________________________
Travis Dayhuff
Nelson Mullins Riley &
Scarborough, LLP
1320 Main Street, 17th Floor
Post Office Box 11070(29211-1070)
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 799-2000
Attorney for Hilton Head Regional
Medical Center
HILTON HEAD IMAGING, LLC
By:___________________________________
Julie B. Overstreet
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP
1201 Main Street, Suite 1450
(29201)
Post Office Box 1509
Columbia, SC 29202-1509
(803) 255-8000
Attorney for Hilton Head Imaging,
LLC
SOUTHERN MRI, LLC
By:____________________________________
E. Wade Mullins, III
Bruner, Powell, Robbins, Wall
& Mullins
1735 St. Julian Place, Suite 200
Post Office Box 61110
Columbia, SC 29260
(803) 252-7693
Attorney for Southern MRI, LLC
SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL
By:____________________________________
Ashley C. Biggers
South Carolina Department of
Health & Environmental Control
2600 Bull Street
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 898-3309
Attorney for South Carolina
Department of Health & Environmental Control
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