Division of Administrative Hearings, Florida
Filed: Apr. 03, 2020
Whether the certificate of need (“CON”) applications filed by Cornerstone Hospice & Palliative Care, Inc. (“Cornerstone”); Suncoast Hospice of Hillsborough, LLC (“Suncoast”); and VITAS Healthcare Corporation of Florida (“VITAS”), for a new hospice program in Agency for Health Care Administration (“AHCA” or the “Agency”) Service Area 6A (Hillsborough County), satisfy the applicable statutory and rule review criteria sufficiently to warrant approval, and, if so, which of the three applications, on balance, best meets the applicable criteria for approval.With a published need for one new program, as between three competing applicants, Suncoast's proposed hospice best satisfies statutory and rule criteria, and should therefore be approved for Hillsborough County.
