Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Pediatric Post Acute Care topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
NH committee hears request to keep flexible bed authorization for Cedar Crest pediatric facility
Summary
Lawmakers heard testimony on Senate Bill 18, which would permit the Health and Human Services commissioner to authorize additional pediatric intermediate-care beds at Cedar Crest in Keene and to seek fiscal-committee approval for more than the two-bed temporary expansion.
Representative Lucy Weber, introducing Senate Bill 18 to the House Committee on Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs, said the measure would permit the commissioner of Health and Human Services to authorize additional beds for a pediatric intermediate care facility under certain circumstances.
Jay Hasten, president and CEO of the Cedar Crest Center for Children with Disabilities, told the committee Cedar Crest is the only facility in the state that provides this combination of intensive medical care and approved-school services for children. "We provide complex care and education to the state's most medically and developmentally fragile children," Hasten said, describing a patient population in which many residents use ventilators, feeding tubes and tracheotomies.
Hasten told lawmakers Cedar Crest serves infants through age 22, provides both long-term and respite stays, and has seen demand climb since the COVID-19 public-health emergency. He said the facility currently fields more inquiries than it can serve and that seasonal respiratory illness increases referrals during warmer months. Hasten urged passage of the bill as introduced, saying temporary expansions last year were used multiple times.
Committee members pressed Hasten and Representative Weber about capacity. Hasten said the facility's historical licensed capacity had been 26 beds; recent temporary increases brought the licensed total to 28, and that temporary authorization is set to expire at the end of the next fiscal year. He said Cedar Crest has some flexible space for emergency or short-term use beyond the 28 bedrooms, but long-term additions beyond a couple of beds would require layout changes or expansion.
Representative McClain and others asked why the bill caps immediate authorization at two additional beds while creating a process for the commissioner to request more authority through the fiscal committee. Weber and Hasten said the two-bed figure reflected near-term functional capacity and the committee step provides financial oversight before larger increases.
No formal vote was recorded during the public hearing. The committee closed the public hearing after additional witnesses and no further testimony was offered.
Why it matters: the bill aims to speed a route for very medically fragile children to move from acute hospital care into a specialized intermediate-care environment, which witnesses said can free acute beds and lower per-day costs. The testimony emphasized the facility's uniqueness, current wait lists, and a near-term limit on authorized beds.
