CHAPTER 80

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 37-25.6, and 37-125.1, 37-125.5, 37-125.6
and 37-125.15, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to liability
for care, treatment and maintenance at certain hospitals; and to
repeal § 87-125.7 of the Code of Virginia, relating to how such
collections are made.

[S 26]

Approved February 20, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 37-25.6, and 37-125.1, 37-125.5, 37-125.6 and 37-125.15, as
amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 37-25.6. The parent, guardian or other person legally liable for the
support of any child admitted or transferred to the Center shall be liable
for the cost of the care and treatment of such child therein to the extent
set forth * in Article 6, Chapter 3 of this Title, which cost may be collected
in the manner therein provided.

§ 37-125.1. Any person who has been or who may be committed or
admitted to any hospital for the mentally-ill or colony for the epileptic or
the mentally-deficient and any person admitted or committed for drug
addiction or the intemperate use of alcohol, or the estate of any such
person or the person legally liable for the support of any such person, shall
be liable for the expenses of his care, treatment and maintenance in such
institution. Such expenses shall not exceed the actual per capita cost of
maintenance * except as hereinafter provided for the Virginia Treatment
Center for Children and shall be fixed by the Department of Mental Hy-
giene and Hospitals, but in no event shall recovery be permitted for
amounts more than five years past due.

The expense for care, treatment and maintenance in the Virginia
Treatment Center for Children shall be fixed by the Department of Mental
Hygiene and Hospitals as follows:

(1) for out-patients, an amount not to exceed fifteen dollars per day;

(2) for in-patients, an amount not to exceed thirty dollars per day;

(3) for day care patients, an amount not to exceed twenty-five dollars
per day.

§ 37-125.5. The Department may contract with any patient’s parent,
guardian, trustee, committee, or the person legally liable for his support
and maintenance, and in arriving at the amount to be paid, the Depart-
ment shall have due regard for the financial condition and estate of the
patient or inmate, his present and future needs and the present and future
needs of his lawful dependents, and, whenever deemed necessary to protect
him, or his dependents, may agree to accept a monthly sum for his mainte-
nance less than the * actual per capita cost of his maintenance. All con-
tracts made by and between the Department and any person under legal
disabilities or any person acting in a fiduciary capacity for any such patient
providing for the payment of the expenses of such patient in any such
institution, shall be subject to the approval of any court of record having
jurisdiction over the incompetent’s estate or for the county or city of which
he is a legal resident, or from which he was legally committed*. _

§ 37-125.6. Upon the failure of any patient of such institution, or of
his parent, guardian, committee, trustee or other person legally responsible
for his expenses, to make payment of the same, or enter into an agreement
for such payment, and whenever it appears from investigation that such
patient or inmate, his parent, guardian, committee, trustee, or other person
legally liable for the support of such person, has sufficient estate, or there
is evidence of ability to pay such expenses, the Department shall apply
to any such court mentioned in § 37-125.5, or to any court having jurisdic-
tion for the county or city in which the person legally lable for the
support of such patient resides, for an order to compel payment of such
expenses by persons liable therefor and in the following order: First, by
the patient or his estate; and second, by the person legally liable for the
support of such patient. The Department shall collect such part or all
of such expenses from the several sources as appears proper under the
circumstances and may proceed against all of such sources. The pro-
ceedings for the collection of such expenses shall conform to the pro-
cedure for collection of debts due the Commonwealth.

§ 37-125.15. The Commissioner of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals may
prescribe statement forms which shall be completed by those persons legally
liable under § 37-125.1 for the support of the patient. Such statement
shall be sworn to by such person and returned to the Commissioner
within thirty days from the time such statement was mailed to such
person. Should such person fail to return such statement to the Com-
missioner, properly completed, within thirty days, the Commissioner
shall send another statement by registered mail and if the statement,
properly completed, is not then returned within thirty days the person
to whom it was sent by registered mail shall be assessed five dollars
for each week, or part of each week, in excess of the thirty-day period
that the statement is overdue, which sum or sums shall be collected by
the Department in the same manner as other sums due for the care,
treatment and maintenance of patients from the persons whose duty it
was to complete each statement, and, when collected, such sum or sums
shall be paid into the same fund into which other collections are paid
under this article. *

A copy of this section shall be placed in a prominent place, in bold
face type, upon each statement form.

2. That § 37-125.7, and all amendments thereof, of the Code of Virginia,
are repealed.