1. 1. Within fifteen business days after receipt of an application for a certificate of need, the department shall examine the application for form and completeness and accept or reject it. An application shall be rejected only if it fails to provide all information required by the department pursuant to section 135.62, subsection 1. The department shall promptly return to the applicant any rejected application, with an explanation of the reasons for its rejection.
2. 2. Upon acceptance of an application for a certificate of need, the department shall promptly undertake to notify all affected persons in writing that formal review of the application has been initiated. Notification to those affected persons who are consumers or third-party payers or other payers for health services may be provided by distribution of the pertinent information to the news media.

3. 3. Each application accepted by the department shall be formally reviewed to enable the department to determine whether or not to grant the certificate of need. A formal review shall consist, at a minimum, of the following steps:

   1. a. Evaluation of the application against the criteria specified in section 135.63.
   2. b. A public hearing on the application, to be held prior to completion of the evaluation required by paragraph “a”.
4. 4. When a hearing is to be held pursuant to subsection 3, paragraph “b”, the department shall give at least ten days’ notice of the time and place of the hearing. At the hearing, any affected person or that person’s designated representative shall have the opportunity to present testimony.

Section transferred from §10A.716 in Code 2026 pursuant to directive in 2025 Acts, ch 120, §40 Subsections 1 and 3 amended

[C79, 81, §135.66] 91 Acts, ch 225, §7; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1443 C2024, §10A.716 2025 Acts, ch 120, §32, 40, 55 C2026, §135.65

Referred to in §135.69