4601 - Definitions.
§ 4601. Definitions. As used in this article: 1. "Certificates" or "certificate of authority" shall mean an authorization in writing, approved by the council and issued by the commissioner, for an operator to operate a continuing care retirement community and to enter into continuing care retirement contracts pertaining to such community. 2. "Commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of health. 2-a. "Continuing care retirement contract" shall mean a single contract to provide a person the services provided by a continuing care retirement community. 2-b. "Continuing care retirement community" or "community" shall mean a facility or facilities established to provide a comprehensive, cohesive living arrangement for the elderly, oriented to the enhancement of the quality of life and which, pursuant to the terms of the continuing care contract, at a minimum: a. provides independent living units, and provides a meal plan. The independent living unit can be made available either through a non-equity arrangement or through an equity arrangement including, but not limited to a cooperative or condominium. For purposes of this article, the purchase price of an independent living unit in an equity arrangement, regardless of the form of the purchase agreement, shall not be considered an entry fee for purposes of calculating reserve liabilities, but shall be considered an entry fee for escrow purposes; b. provides a range of health care and social services, subject to such terms as may be included within the contract, which shall include home health care, nursing care, and at a minimum, sixty days of prepaid services of an on-site or affiliated nursing facility; c. provides access to health services as defined in the contract, prescription drugs, and rehabilitation services; and d. nothing in this article shall eliminate the obligation of a continuing care retirement community to provide at least sixty days of prepaid nursing facility services to all residents. The prepaid days must include the first sixty days of nursing facility services, whether or not consecutive, not covered by Title XVIII of the federal social security act. 3. "Contracts" or "agreements" shall mean continuing care retirement contracts as defined in this article. 4. "Control", "controlling", "controlled by", and "under common control with" shall mean the possession, directly, or indirectly, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities or voting rights, by contract (except a commercial contract for goods or non-management services) or otherwise; but no person shall be deemed to control another person solely by reason of his being an officer or director of such other person. Control shall be presumed to exist if any person directly or indirectly owns, controls, or holds with the power to vote ten percent or more of the voting securities or voting rights of any other person or is a corporate member of the legal entity. 5. "Council" shall mean the continuing care retirement community council, established pursuant to section forty-six hundred two of this article. 6. "Entrance fee" shall mean an initial or deferred transfer to an operator of a sum of money, made or promised to be made by a person or persons entering into a continuing care retirement contract, for the purpose of ensuring services pursuant to such a contract. 7. "Facility" shall mean any place in which an operator undertakes to provide a resident with the services of a continuing care retirementcommunity, pursuant to a contract, whether such place is constructed, owned, leased, rented, or otherwise contracted for by the operator. 8. "Life care contract" shall mean a single continuing care retirement contract to provide a person, for the duration of such person's life, the services provided by the continuing care retirement community, which services shall include unlimited services of an on-site or affiliated nursing facility. Such term also shall mean a single continuing care retirement contract to provide a person, for the duration of such person's life, the services provided by the continuing care retirement community under an arrangement in which the costs of the residents' unlimited nursing home or home health care services are paid for in whole or in part by a long term care insurance policy approved by the superintendent in accordance with applicable regulations or by long term care insurance or medical assistance payments in accordance with the partnership for long term care program pursuant to the provisions of section three hundred sixty-seven-f of the social services law, section three thousand two hundred twenty-nine of the insurance law and section four thousand six hundred twenty-three of this chapter. 9. "Life care shall mean those services provided pursuant to a "life care contract". 10. "Living unit" shall mean an apartment, room, cottage, or other area within a community set aside for the exclusive use of one or more residents. 10-a. "Meal plan" shall mean an arrangement whereby the person entering into the continuing care retirement contract is provided with no fewer than five meals per month. Additional meals shall be available on a fee-for-service basis. 11. "Monthly care fee" shall mean the monthly cost to a resident for prepayment of any services, including rent, rendered pursuant to a contract, exclusive of entrance fees or other prepayments, and any other regular periodic charges to the resident, determined on a monthly basis, pursuant to the provisions of a contract. 12. "Operator" shall mean a legal entity operating a continuing care retirement community pursuant to a certificate of authority. 13. "Priority reservation agreement" shall mean a cancelable agreement between a prospective continuing care retirement community applicant, an applicant for a certificate of authority or an operator and a prospective resident, for the purpose of evaluating market demand for a proposed continuing care retirement community and for the purpose of guaranteeing to prospective residents an opportunity for priority placement in a continuing care retirement community, under which the prospective resident will pay a refundable priority reservation fee. A priority reservation agreement does not fall within the meaning of contracts or agreements as defined in subdivision three of this section. 14. "Priority reservation fee" shall mean the refundable sum of money paid by a prospective resident for deposit with the escrow agent for a prospective continuing care retirement community applicant, an applicant for a certificate of authority or an operator pursuant to a priority reservation agreement. 15. "Resident" shall mean any person who, pursuant to a contract, is entitled to reside in and receive services from a continuing care retirement community. 16. "Residential health care demonstration facility" shall mean a residential health care facility containing up to sixty beds, within the defined geographical boundary of each health systems agency established under the provisions of subdivision (c) of section twenty-nine hundred four of this chapter, provided that such residential health care facility is an integrated part of a comprehensive system of residentialand support services for the elderly, providing either directly or through one or more affiliated entities, prior to the effective date of this subdivision, on or adjacent to the site of the proposed residential health care facility, independent living units, an adult care facility as defined in section two of the social services law and a range of health care and social services, which may include home health care, counselling, case management and information and referral. 16-a. "Social services" shall mean those services which may include, but not be limited to counseling, case management, and information and referral. 17. "Superintendent" shall mean the superintendent of insurance.