Rhode Island General Laws Title 23. Health and Safety § 23-17-4. License required for health-care facility operation

(a) No person acting severally or jointly with any other person shall establish, conduct, or maintain a health-care facility in this state without a license under this chapter; provided, however, that any person, firm, corporation, or other entity that provides volunteer, registered and licensed practical nurses to the public shall not be required to have a license as a health-care facility.

(b) Each location at which a health-care facility provides services shall be licensed; provided, however, that a hospital or organized ambulatory-care facility shall be permitted to provide, solely on an ambulatory basis, limited physician services, other limited, professional health-care services, and/or other limited, professional mental-health-care services in conjunction with services provided by and at community health centers, community mental-health centers, organized ambulatory-care facilities or other licensed health-care facilities, physicians' offices, and facilities operated by the department of corrections without establishing such locations as additional licensed premises of the hospital or organized ambulatory-care facility; provided, that a health-care facility licensed as an organized ambulatory-care facility in the state, may provide services at other locations operated by that licensed organized ambulatory-care facility, without the requirement of a separate, organized ambulatory-care facility license for such other locations. For purposes of this section, an organized ambulatory-care facility or other licensed health-care facility shall not include a freestanding emergency-care facility. The department is further authorized to adopt rules and regulations to accomplish the purpose of this section, including, but not limited to, defining “limited physician services, other limited, professional health-care services, and/or other limited, professional mental-health-care services.”

(c) The reimbursement rates for the services rendered in the settings listed in subsection (b) shall be subject to negotiations between the hospitals, organized, ambulatory-care facilities, and the payors, respectively, as defined in § 23-17.12-2.