Private Professional Practice Exemption

(1) Seeking licensure of a place, building, or facility as a health care institution is inconsistent with an assertion that such place, building, or facility is being occupied “exclusively as the professional practice office” of a medical doctor, osteopath, or dentist. Therefore, any person who seeks licensure as a health care institution as set forth in T.C.A. § 68-11-1602 must secure a certificate of need. (2) To establish or maintain a health care institution that does not require licensure, a certificate of need is required unless the place, building, or facility is occupied exclusively as the professional practice of a medical doctor, osteopathic doctor, or dentist. In determining whether the professional practice exemption is met, the Commission may consider all relevant factors, including but not limited to, form of facility ownership, types of service reimbursement sought and/or received, patient referral sources, advertising/marketing efforts, and whether the private practitioner retains complete responsibility for management and business control. (3) The “private professional practice” exemption has no application in regard to initiation of services or other actions requiring a certificate of need. The applicability of the exemption, as defined above, is limited to the definition of a “health care institution.”