SECTION 1. Section 71 of chapter 111 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the twenty-second paragraph the following paragraph:-

The department shall permit long-term care facilities to maintain beds out of service upon request, including, but not limited to select beds in open long-term care facilities and all beds in a previously closed long-term care facilities and shall promulgate rules and regulations for the request and approval process for beds out of service for circumstances other than those taken out of service pursuant to a determination of need or for the completion of a plan of correction. Beds out of service may be the subject of transfer of ownership and determination of need filings. For the purposes of this paragraph the term “beds out of service” shall mean those beds that are either a part of or all of the licensed capacity of a facility, which are currently not occupied, staffed or physically available for occupancy.

SECTION 2. Section 1 of this act shall apply to beds out of service approved by the department of public health in 2018; provided however, that upon promulgation of the rules and regulations required by this act, section 1 shall apply to beds out of service approved by the department pursuant to such rules and regulations.