(a) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this chapter, this chapter shall not apply to:

(1) Infirmaries operated by educational institutions for the sole and exclusive benefit of students, faculty members, officers, or employees thereof;

(2) Infirmaries or facilities operated by businesses for the sole and exclusive benefit of officers or employees thereof, provided that such infirmaries or facilities make no provision for overnight stay by persons receiving their services;

(3) Institutions operated exclusively by the federal government or by any of its agencies;

(4) Offices of private physicians or dentists whether for individual or group practice, except as otherwise provided in subparagraphs (G) and (H) of paragraph (14) of Code Section 31-6-2;

(5) Christian Science sanatoriums operated or listed and certified by the First Church of Christ Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts;

(6) Site acquisitions for health care facilities or preparation or development costs for such sites prior to the decision to file a certificate of need application;

(7) Expenditures related to adequate preparation and development of an application for a certificate of need;

(8) The commitment of funds conditioned upon the obtaining of a certificate of need;

(9) Expenditures for the acquisition of existing health care facilities by stock or asset purchase, merger, consolidation, or other lawful means unless the facilities are owned or operated by or on behalf of a:

(A) Political subdivision of this state;

(B) Combination of such political subdivisions; or

(C) Hospital authority, as defined in Article 4 of Chapter 7 of this title;

(9.1) Expenditures for the restructuring of or for the acquisition by stock or asset purchase, merger, consolidation, or other lawful means of an existing health care facility which is owned or operated by or on behalf of any entity described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (9) of this subsection only if such restructuring or acquisition is made by any entity described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (9) of this subsection;

(10) Expenditures for the minor repair of a health care facility, or parts thereof or services provided or equipment used therein, or replacement of equipment, including, but not limited to, CT scanners; (11) Capital expenditures otherwise covered by this chapter required solely to eliminate or prevent safety hazards as defined by federal, state, or local fire, building, environmental, occupational health, or life safety codes or regulations, to comply with licensing requirements of the Department of Human Resources, or to comply with accreditation standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals;

(12) Cost overruns whose percentage of the cost of a project is equal to or less than the cumulative annual rate of increase in the composite construction index, published by the Bureau of the Census of the Department of Commerce, of the United States government, calculated from the date of approval of the project;

(13) Transfers from one health care facility to another such facility of major medical equipment previously approved under or exempted from certificate of need review, except where such transfer results in the institution of a new clinical health service for which a certificate of need is required in the facility acquiring said equipment, provided that such transfers are recorded at net book value of the medical equipment as recorded on the books of the transferring facility;

(14) New institutional health services provided by or on behalf of health maintenance organizations or related health care facilities in circumstances defined by the department pursuant to federal law;

(15) Increases in the bed capacity of a hospital up to ten beds or 10 percent of capacity, whichever is less, in any consecutive two-year period, in a hospital that has maintained an overall occupancy rate greater than 85 percent for the previous 12 month period; and

(16) Capital expenditures for a project otherwise requiring a certificate of need if those expenditures are for a project to remodel, renovate, replace, or any combination thereof, a medical-surgical hospital and:

(A) That hospital:

(i) Has a bed capacity of not more than 50 beds;

(ii) Is located in a county in which no other medical-surgical hospital is located;

(iii) Has at any time been designated as a disproportionate share hospital by the Department of Community Health; and

(iv) Has at least 45 percent of its patient revenues derived from medicare, Medicaid, or any combination thereof, for the immediately preceding three years; and

(B) That project:

(i) Does not result in any of the following:

(I) The offering of any new clinical health services;

(II) Any increase in bed capacity; (III) Any redistribution of existing beds among existing clinical health services; or

(IV) Any increase in capacity of existing clinical health services;

(ii) Has at least 80 percent of its capital expenditures financed by the proceeds of a special purpose county sales and use tax imposed pursuant to Article 3 of Chapter 8 of Title 48; and

(iii) Is located within a three-mile radius of and within the same county as the hospital's existing facility.

(b) The department shall establish, by rule, procedures whereby requirements for the process of review and issuance of a certificate of need may be modified and expedited as a result of emergency situations.

(c) By rule, the department shall establish a procedure for expediting or waiving reviews of certain projects the nonreview of which it deems compatible with the purposes of this chapter, in addition to expenditures exempted from review by this Code section.