Healthcare is not just about hospitals, it is also about the factories that supply the hospitals with everything from medical equipment and high tech machines to the basic goods and services necessary to make these vital institutions function.
Healthcare zones are defined as “areas within a five mile radius of a healthcare facility with a “certificate of need” for acute care hospital beds in a region where there are three contiguous counties with more than 375 acute care hospital beds. Also, healthcare zones are to be located within five miles of a hospital that will be constructed before July 1, 2017 involving a minimum capital investment of $250 million.
To activate healthcare zones, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant enacted the “Health Care Industry Zone Act”. The Act’s aim is to expand access to high quality medical care for state residents and increase the number of healthcare jobs in the state by encouraging healthcare related businesses to locate or expand within a qualified healthcare zone in the state.
The State is pioneering using this new healthcare zone strategy by developing healthcare zone master plans to guide healthcare investment and expansion at the local level. The Act requires businesses involving medical supplies and distributors, biologics, laboratory testing, diagnostic imaging, biotechnology research facilities, plus companies producing medical equipment or medicine or health-related manufacturing or processing companies to invest at least $10 million or create a minimum of 25 full time permanent jobs within the healthcare zone.
If the businesses meet the requirements within the zone, then the businesses are certified and eligible for certain tax incentives such as an accelerated, ten year state income tax depreciation deduction and a sales tax exemption for equipment and materials purchased from the date of the project’s certification. Certified companies can also qualify for other state incentive programs.
In August 2013, the Governor announced that 12 community master plans have been certified through the Mississippi Development Authority. During the 2013 state legislative session, the Governor expanded the act to include healthcare investment in communities that develop a certified healthcare master plan in lieu of meeting the original law’s acute care bed count.
For more information, contact the Financial Resources Division at financial@mississippi.org or call 601-359-3552.