Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §334, as enacted by PL 2001, c. 664, §2, is amended to read:

§334. Nursing facility projects

Nursing facility projects that propose to add new nursing facility beds to the inventory of nursing facility beds within the State may be grouped for competitive review purposes consistent with appropriations made available for that purpose by the Legislature. A nursing facility project that proposes renovation, replacement or other actions that will increase Medicaid costs may be approved only if appropriations have been made by the Legislature expressly for the purpose of meeting those costs, except that the department may approve, without a prior appropriation for the express purpose, projects to reopen beds previously reserved by a nursing facility through a voluntary reduction pursuant to section 333, if the annual total of reopened beds approved does not exceed 100.

Beginning with all applications pending on January 1, 2003, in evaluating whether a project will increase MaineCare expenditures for a nursing facility for the purposes of this section, the department shall:

1.__Square footage.__Allow gross square footage per licensed bed of not less than 500 square feet unless the applicant specifies a smaller allowance for the project; and

2.__Replacement of equipment.__Exclude the projected incremental cost associated with replacement of equipment.

Sec. 2. 22 MRSA §1812-C, sub-§6-A, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 670, Pt. B, §1 and affected by Pt. D, §5, is amended to read:

6-A. Shared staffing. The department shall permit staff in nursing facilities to be shared with other levels of assisted living on the same premises as long as there is a clear, documented audit trail and the staffing in the nursing facilities remains adequate to meet the needs of residents. Staffing to be shared may be based on the average number of hours used per week or month within the assisted living program. In an assisted housing program licensed under section 7801 with 2 or more staff required to be awake and on duty during a night shift, up to 1/2 of the staff may be shared on an emergency or episodic basis with a nursing facility in the same or an adjacent building without prior approval from the department.

Sec. 3. 22 MRSA §3174-I, sub-§4 is enacted to read: