(a) As used in this Code section, the term "control" means ownership of 50 percent or more of the assets of the entity in question or the ability to influence significantly the operations or decisions of the entity in question.

(b) The sale or lease of assets of a hospital owned or operated by a hospital authority to an individual, business corporation, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, joint venture, nonprofit corporation, hospital authority, or any other for profit or not for profit entity shall be subject to the notice, hearing, certification, enforcement, and other requirements of Article 15 of this chapter which are applicable to dispositions of nonprofit hospitals to acquiring entities if the disposition of assets constitutes a sale or lease of 50 percent or more of the assets of a hospital having a permit under this chapter or constitutes a sale or lease which, when combined with one or more transfers between the same or related parties occurring within a period of five years, constitutes a sale or lease of 50 percent or more of the assets of a hospital having a permit under this chapter; provided, however, that the provisions of this Code section shall not apply to the restructuring of a hospital owned by a hospital authority involving a lease of assets to any not for profit or for profit entity which has a principal place of business located in the same county where the main campus of the hospital in question is located and which is not owned, in whole or in part, or controlled by any other for profit or not for profit entity whose principal place of business is located outside such county.

(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b) of this Code section, the sale or lease of assets of a hospital owned or operated by a hospital authority to another hospital authority whose area of operation is a county contiguous to the county in which is located the hospital whose sale or lease is proposed shall not be subject to the requirements of Article 15 of this chapter.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to the contrary, a hospital authority which is located in a county having a population of 50,000 or fewer, according to the United States decennial census of 1990 or any future such census, may locate a project outside that hospital authority's area of operation if such location is in a county which is contiguous to the county of such hospital authority's area of operation.