CHAPTER 492

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 37-125.1, as amended, and $7-125.14,
relating to expenses of care, treatment and maintenance of certain
persons, and how such expenses shall be collected in certain instances;
to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 37-
125.15, relating to statement forms to be completed by certain persons
and to provide a penalty for failure to complete such forms.

[(S 365]

Approved April 2, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§ 37-125.1, as amended, and 37-125.14 of the Code of Virginia
be amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia be amended
by adding a section numbered 37-125.15, as follows:

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 per-
son if deceased, or the person legally liable for the support of any such
person, shall be liable for the expenses of his care, treatment and main-
tenance in such institution. ‘Such expenses shall not exceed the actual per
capita cost of maintenance, or the sum of forty dollars per month, which-
ever amount is the lesser, and shall be fixed by the Department of Mental
Hygiene and Hospitals, but in no event shall recovery be permitted for
amounts more than three years past due.

37-125.14. The estate of any patient or inmate dying in such in-
situtions shall be liable only for such amounts as remain unpaid under
an agreement entered into by him or by and between the Department
and his trustee, committee or person acting in a fiduciary capacity for
him, or the unsatisfied portion of any judgment rendered by a court in
a proceeding had under this article, provided, however, that in the event
such agreement was reached by fraud, or concealment on the part of
that person or persons representing the estate of the pattent, or that
person or persons legally liable for the support of the patient, by which
the ability to pay was understated, then the Department may recover
such amount as may be proportionate to the true ability to pay, not to
exceed the amount set out in § 37-125.1; provided, however, that in no
event shall recovery be permitted for amounts more than three years past
due which would have been collected had there been no fraud or conceal-
ment.
§ 37-125.15. The Commissioner of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals may
prescribe statement forms which shall be completed by those persons legally
liable for the support of the patient. Such statement or statements shall
be sworn to by such person, and returned to the Department within thirty
days from the time such statement was mailed to such person. Should
such person fail to return such statement to the Department, properly
completed, within 30 days, the Commissioner shall send another statement
by registered mail and if a statement is not then returned in 30 days the
person liable shall be assessed five dollars for each week, or part thereof,
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 sum 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 such statement form.