Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 123b - Mental Retardation
Section 16 - Charges for Care of Persons in Facilities

Section 16. The department may make charges for the care of any person in its facilities. To the extent that any person in its facilities is eligible for third party payment of charges for care, the department shall make said charges for care at rates established by the executive office of health and human services or a governmental unit designated by the executive office. To the extent that third party payment is not available, or is not sufficient to pay said charges, the charges may be recovered from said person, or from any person with a legal obligation to support the person, or from the parent of an adult with a disability or disabilities; provided, however, that said person shall be entitled to retain one thousand dollars in cash or personal property; and provided, further, that the department shall make adjustments to the charges based upon said person's individual circumstances; and provided, further, that all charges recovered from the parent of an adult child with a disability or disabilities, shall be recovered in accordance with procedures developed as set forth in section one hundred and forty-two of chapter one hundred and fifty of the acts of nineteen hundred and ninety. If a superintendent of a facility for persons with an intellectual disability holds the funds of a resident in a dependent funds account, the amount recoverable from the resident which would be paid from the dependent funds shall be deferred until the death of the resident, at which time the accumulated deferred payment shall be owed to the department by the estate of the resident; provided, however that this shall not prevent the department from recovering charges without deferral from any of the resident's funds which are held outside of a dependent funds account.
The department shall not recover charges from a resident of a facility for persons with an intellectual disability until the status of the dependent and independent funds of said resident has been reviewed by the department pursuant to section four of this chapter.
The department also shall establish, by regulation, a system of charges for care in programs funded by or under a contract with the department which is consistent with the provisions of this section.

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