---
type: "Bill"
title: "Maryland Health Care Commission - State Health Plan and Certificate of Need for Hospital Capital Expenditures"
description: "Maryland Health Care Commission - State Health Plan and Certificate of Need for Hospital Capital Expenditures"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 646"
citation: "Maryland HB 646 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health Care Facilities and Regulation", "Certifications", "Communications", "Contracts", "Data", "Examinations", "Health", "Health Care Commission", "Hospitals", "Publications", "Public Information", "Time", "Zoning and Planning"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Pendergrass"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-02-06"
last_action: "2019-05-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b2af1f8d-79e0-4b6f-a140-555eb128dd4b"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=HB646&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2019rs"
source_hash: "2f744c3e80590b1efe5d8bb966986557a48b364744f43daf152fd5007f824793"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland HB 646 (2019) — Maryland Health Care Commission - State Health Plan and Certificate of Need for Hospital Capital Expenditures

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2019RS/bills/hb/hb0646f.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **136–0** (pass) · lower
- On Third Reading — **45–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Pendergrass — primary (person)
- Bagnall — cosponsor (person)
- Barron — cosponsor (person)
- Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Charles — cosponsor (person)
- Chisholm — cosponsor (person)
- Cullison — cosponsor (person)
- K. Young — cosponsor (person)
- Kelly — cosponsor (person)
- Kerr — cosponsor (person)
- Kipke — cosponsor (person)
- Krebs — cosponsor (person)
- Metzgar — cosponsor (person)
- Morgan — cosponsor (person)
- Pena-Melnyk — cosponsor (person)
- R. Lewis — cosponsor (person)
- Rosenberg — cosponsor (person)
- Saab — cosponsor (person)
- Sample-Hughes — cosponsor (person)
- Szeliga — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-06** First Reading Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-13** Hearing 3/06 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2019-03-15** Favorable with Amendments Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-15** Favorable with Amendments {696082/1 Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-15** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2019-03-18** Third Reading Passed (136-0) `passage`
- **2019-03-18** First Reading Finance `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-28** Favorable Report by Finance `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-28** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-28** Second Reading Passed
- **2019-04-02** Third Reading Passed (45-0) `passage`
- **2019-04-03** Returned Passed
- **2019-05-13** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 415 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b2af1f8d-79e0-4b6f-a140-555eb128dd4b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).