§ 9530. Definitions

The following definitions shall apply throughout this chapter unless the context requires otherwise:

(1) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Vermont Health Access.

(2) [Deleted.]

(3) "Nursing home" means an institution, as defined in 33 V.S.A. § 7102(7), required to be licensed pursuant to 33 V.S.A. § 7103.

(4) "Owner" means any natural person, association, trust, or corporation with an ownership interest in a nursing home.

(5) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Human Services.

(6) "Selling price" means the amount of the full actual consideration for the transfer, paid or to be paid, including the amount of any liens or encumbrances existing before the transfer and not removed.

(7) "Transfer" means every sale or change of ownership of a Vermont nursing home, owned by the transferor during the entire 12-year period immediately preceding the change in ownership and providing services to the state under a contract during the entire period, after which transfer the home will continue in operation. A transfer includes all changes in ownership whether effected by the transfer of stock, shares, or assets, with the following exceptions:

(A) the sale of stock or shares in a publicly traded corporation; or

(B) the sale of stock or shares made solely as a method of financing (not as a method of transferring management or control) when the number of shares transferred does not exceed 25 percent of the total number of shares in any one class of stock; or

(C) a change of ownership between related parties other than family members; or

(D) a change of ownership between family members for less than full and reasonable consideration; or

(E) such other transactions that the Commissioner may determine not to constitute a true change of ownership.

(8)(A) "Family member" means spouses, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, or the spouse of such person.

(B) "Related party" means a person that is directly or indirectly under common ownership or control or related by other business association; or an entity in which an individual who directly or indirectly receives or expects to receive compensation in any form is also an owner, partner, officer, director, key employee of, or lender to the other entity.

(9) "Transferor" means the owner of a nursing home who by the transfer has been divested of an ownership interest in the home. (Added 1995, No. 14, § 5, eff. April 12, 1995; amended 1995, No. 186 (Adj. Sess.), § 9, eff. May 22, 1996; 1999, No. 147 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 2005, No. 174 (Adj. Sess.), § 65; 2009, No. 156 (Adj. Sess.), § I.32.)