NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1973 SESSION

CHAPTER 775

SENATE BILL 814

AN ACT TO AMEND G.S. 143-127.1 PROVIDING FOR PAYMENT OF COST OF CARE IN STATE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 143-127.1 is hereby rewritten to read as follows:

"§ 143-127.1.  Parental liability for payment of cost of care for long-term patients in State Department of Mental Health facilities. — (a) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of G.S. 143-117 through G.S. 143-127 inclusive, the natural or adoptive parents of persons who are long-term patients at facilities owned or operated by the State Department of Mental Health shall only be liable on the charges made by such facility for treatment, care and maintenance for an amount not to exceed the cost of caring for a normal child at home as determined from standard sources by the State Department of Mental Health.

(b)        Parents or adoptive parents of a long-term patient in a facility owned or operated by the State Department of Mental Health shall not be liable for any charges made by such facility for treatment, care and maintenance of such a patient incurred or accrued subsequent to such patient attaining age 18.

(c)        For purposes of this section, the term long-term "patient" is defined as a person who has been a patient in a facility owned or operated by the State Department of Mental Health for a continuous period in excess of 120 days. No absence of a patient from the facility due to a temporary or trial visit shall be counted as interrupting the accrual of the 120 days herein required to attain the status on a long-term patient."

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 23rd day of May, 1973.