Indigent Care Fund.

(a) There is hereby established for and in the counties subject to this subpart a county indigent care fund herein called the Indigent Care Fund. The Indigent Care Fund shall be used by such counties for any or all of the following purposes: To acquire by construction, eminent domain, or otherwise a county hospital, hospitals, and/or clinics, and to operate, equip, and maintain the same for the medical care and treatment of indigent persons of such county suffering from illness, injury, disability, or infirmity, including outpatients; and the furnishing of drugs and medicine to such indigent persons, including outpatient care at the county hospital or at a clinic maintained by the county or under contract with the county, also the operation of an emergency clinic. In addition, the county shall be authorized to furnish part of the cost of the medical care for those of the county able to pay for only part of their own medical care.

(b) Such county shall be authorized to provide such treatment, care, drugs, and medicines at a county hospital, outpatient clinic, and/or emergency clinic or other hospitals located in such county under a contract between the county and any general hospital approved by the joint commission on accreditation of hospitals in the county.

(c) The county shall be authorized to collect for the benefit of the Indigent Care Fund such sums as the county is able to collect from part-pay patients and from any other source or fund, public or private.

(d) The county each year shall earmark and set aside in a separate fund not less than twenty-five percent of the county indigent care fund to be used for capital improvements. This requirement shall cease and no longer be binding upon the county after a county hospital has been constructed and fully equipped.

(Acts 1965, No. 388, p. 533, §12.)