French Public Health Code
In forceI.-The cooperation contracts and amendments to cooperation contracts concluded between several medical biology laboratories provided for in Article L. 6212-6 shall be communicated as soon as they are concluded to the regional health agency and to the Minister of Defence for the medical biology laboratories under his authority.
II.When the regional health plan is revised in application of the provisions of Article L. 1434-1 or when the boundaries of the zones defined in b of 2° of Article L. 1434-9 are changed, the Director General of the regional health agency shall verify, within three months of the publication of the acts that have modified the plan or the health territories, that, in accordance with the first paragraph of Article L. 6212-6, the co-operations remain compatible with the provisions of the regional health plan as regards the location of medical biology laboratories and with the new zones.
The contract shall be deemed incompatible if it has the effect of maintaining or increasing, in the area or areas where the cooperation takes place, the level of supply of medical biology tests to a level higher than that of the needs of the population as defined in the new plan.
The contract is also considered to be incompatible when the new areas in which the cooperation takes place are not adjacent.
III - When the Director General of the Regional Health Agency establishes an incompatibility, he will notify the co-contracting parties concerned within the time limit set out in II, inviting them to make their observations known and, where appropriate, to revise the contract in order to remove the incompatibilities.
The contract may be maintained if the laboratories concerned can justify :
1° Either that the range of tests offered can only be covered by the co-contractor, due to the highly specialised nature of the tests it offers ;
2° Or that the needs of the population as defined in the new plan are no longer met if the contract is not maintained.
Within two months of receiving notification of the incompatibility, the parties to the contract notify the Director General of the Regional Health Agency of their proposals in response to the request.
Within three months of receiving these proposals, the Director General of the Regional Health Agency will notify the co-contracting parties in a reasoned decision whether the contract should be maintained unchanged or whether it should be maintained with the proposed changes. In the latter case, he shall specify the deadline for implementing the proposed changes, which may not exceed one year.
