(a) The department or its designee(s) shall request inpatient facilities to report to the department their self-designations as basic, specialty, or subspecialty perinatal care facilities. Designations shall be self-reported by facilities based upon the standards and guidelines in the publications listed in §37.253 of this title (relating to Professional Standards/Guidelines). Facilities shall select the designation category that most accurately describes their capacity to provide perinatal care.
(b) Each facility providing inpatient perinatal care may voluntarily report to the department its self-designated category.
(c) The department shall publish the designation categories of all participating perinatal facilities in each perinatal planning area annually.
(d) The department or its designees may evaluate a facility to confirm the facility's self-declared designation category through a random review process or upon request by a perinatal resource coordinating group (PRCG), at the discretion of the department.
(e) The review team for specialty and subspecialty perinatal facilities may include board certified/eligible specialists in obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine, pediatrics, and neonatal-perinatal medicine, as appropriate for the facility to be reviewed, and one or more department representatives.
(f) The review team for basic perinatal facilities may include one or more active perinatal care providers and one or more department representatives.
(g) The department shall provide a copy of the review report and recommendations to the reviewed facility, the review team, and the PRCG.
(h) Whenever a facility review is conducted, the department may confirm the self-declared designation or approve a different designation.
(i) If a perinatal care facility disagrees with the department's designation decision, the facility may request an administrative hearing which shall be conducted according to §§1.51-1.55 of this title (relating to Fair Hearing Procedures).
(j) A participating perinatal care facility shall notify the department and its PRCG within 30 days if it is unable or chooses not to continue providing perinatal care commensurate with its designation category.

Source Note: The provisions of this §37.259 adopted to be effective July 18, 1999, 24 TexReg 5196