(a) Each application for a certificate of need shall be reviewed by the department and within ten working days after the date of its receipt a determination shall be made as to whether the application complies with the rules governing the preparation and submission of applications. If the application complies with the rules governing the preparation and submission of applications, the department shall declare the application complete for review, shall accept and date the application, and shall notify the applicant of the timetable for its review. The department shall also notify a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the project shall be developed that the application has been deemed complete. The department shall also notify the appropriate regional development center and the chief elected official of the county and municipal governments, if any, in whose boundaries the proposed project will be located that the application is complete for review. If the application does not comply with the rules governing the preparation and submission of applications, the department shall notify the applicant in writing and provide a list of all deficiencies. The applicant shall be afforded an opportunity to correct such deficiencies, and upon such correction, the application shall then be declared complete for review within ten days of the correction of such deficiencies, and notice given to a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the project shall be developed that the application has been so declared. The department shall also notify the appropriate regional development center and the chief elected official of the county and municipal governments, if any, in whose boundaries the proposed project will be located that the application is complete for review or when in the determination of the department a significant amendment is filed.

(b) An applicant may amend its application at any time no later than ten days prior to the end of the review period, and the department may request an applicant to make amendments. The department decision shall be made on an application as amended, if at all, by the applicant.

(c) Except as provided in subsection (d) of this Code section, there shall be a time limit of 90 days for review of a project, beginning on the day the department declares the application complete for review. The department may adopt rules for determining when it is not practicable to complete a review in 90 days and may extend the review period upon written notice to the applicant but only for an extended period of not longer than an additional 30 days.

(d) The department may order the joinder of an application which is complete for review with one or more subsequently filed applications declared complete for review when:

(1) The first and subsequent applications involve similar projects in the same service area or overlapping medical service areas; and

(2) The subsequent applications are filed and are declared complete for review within 30 days of the date the first application was declared complete for review.

Following joinder of the first application with subsequent applications, none of the subsequent applications so joined may be considered as a first application for the purposes of future joinder. The department shall notify the applicant to whose application a joinder is ordered and all other applicants previously joined to such application of the fact of each joinder pursuant to this subsection. In the event one or more applications have been joined pursuant to this subsection, the time limits for department action for all of the applicants shall run from the latest date that any one of the joined applications was declared complete for review. In the event of the consideration of one or more applications joined pursuant to this subsection, the department may award no certificate of need or one or more certificates of need to the application or applications, if any, which are consistent with the considerations contained in Code Section 31-6-42, the department's applicable rules, and the award of which will best satisfy the purposes of this chapter.

(e) The department shall review the application and all written information submitted by the applicant in support of the application to determine the extent to which the proposed project is consistent with the applicable considerations stated in Code Section 31-6-42 and in the department's applicable rules. During the course of the review, the department staff may request additional information from the applicant as deemed appropriate. Pursuant to rules adopted by the department, a public hearing on applications covered by those regulations may be held prior to the date of the department's decision thereon. Such rules shall provide that when good cause has been shown, a public hearing shall be held by the department. Any interested person may submit information to the department concerning an application, and an applicant shall be entitled to notice of and to respond to any such submission.

(f) In the event that the department's initial review of an application indicates that an application is not consistent with the applicable considerations contained in Code Section 31-6-42 and in the department's applicable rules, on or before the sixtieth day after an application, or the last application joined pursuant to subsection (d) of this Code section, is declared complete for review, the department shall provide the applicant an opportunity to meet with the department to discuss the application and an opportunity to submit additional information. Such additional information shall be submitted prior to the seventy-fifth day after the application, or the last application joined pursuant to subsection (d) of this Code section, is declared complete for review.

(g) The department shall, no later than 90 days after an application is declared complete for review, or in the event joinder is ordered pursuant to subsection (d) of this Code section, then 90 days after the last joined application is declared complete for review, provide written notification to an applicant of the department's decision to issue or to deny issuance of a certificate of need for the proposed project. In the event the department has extended the review period pursuant to subsection (c) of this Code section, then the department shall provide such written notification within 120 days after the application, or the last application joined pursuant to subsection (d) of this Code section, was declared complete for review. Such notice shall contain the department's written findings of fact and decision as to each applicable consideration or rule and a detailed statement of the reasons and evidentiary support for issuing or denying a certificate of need for the action proposed by each applicant. The department shall also mail such notification to the appropriate regional development center and the chief elected official of the county and municipal governments, if any, in whose boundaries the proposed project will be located. In the event such decision is to issue a certificate of need, the certificate of need shall be effective on the day of the decision unless the decision is appealed to the review board in accordance with this chapter.

(h) Should the department fail to provide written notification of the decision within the time limitations set forth in this Code section, an application shall be deemed to have been approved as of the ninety-first day, or the one hundred twenty-first day if the review period was extended pursuant to subsection (c) of this Code section, following notice from the department that an application, or the last of any applications joined pursuant to subsection (d) of this Code section, is declared "complete for review."