Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, the county of Worcester is hereby authorized to establish a special account to be known as the Worcester county hospital operations account. Into such account shall be deposited all receipts, revenues and funds from any source derived from any activity of the Worcester county hospital.

SECTION 2. The account authorized by section one shall be maintained by the county treasurer of the county of Worcester in accordance with the provisions of section ten of chapter thirty-five of the General Laws and expenditures from such account shall be made by the administrator of the Worcester county hospital without appropriation and used solely for the operation and maintenance and for the provision of capital, equipment and plant for said hospital. Such account shall be maintained in accordance with generally accepted principles of accounting, and shall be audited annually by a certified public accountant. Such audits shall be submitted to the board of trustees of said hospital, the Worcester county advisory board, said county treasurer, and the bureau of accounts. The county treasurer shall invest the monies in said account as authorized by law and the interest accruing thereon shall inure to the benefit of said hospital. For the purpose of providing health care for the citizens of the county of Worcester, said county may from time to time appropriate monies by assessment into said account and donations from private sources may be received into said account.

SECTION 3. The county treasurer, upon written request of the administrator of Worcester county hospital after consultation with the board of trustees of said hospital, may borrow funds in any fiscal year in anticipation of the receipt of revenues of said hospital during the balance of said fiscal year as well as during the ensuing fiscal year. Said administrator shall certify to the county treasurer his estimate of such anticipated revenues. Such borrowings shall be payable, and shall be paid, not later than one year from their date and said one year term may occur within the span of two separate fiscal years. Such loans outstanding at any one time in any fiscal year shall not exceed, in the aggregate, thirty percent of the annual expenses of the current fiscal year as certified by said administrator, or such larger amounts as may be approved by the county commissioners and the Worcester county advisory board. All sums so borrowed shall be deposited into said account established under section one.

SECTION 4. The administrator of Worcester county hospital shall file with the county commissioners, the Worcester county advisory board, the county treasurer, and the bureau of accounts, a written report of the special account established under the provisions of section one within one hundred and twenty days after the end of the fiscal year. Such report shall include financial statements relating to the operation, maintenance, capital and real properties of said hospital. The administrator shall annually, not later than sixty days prior to the expiration of each fiscal year, submit to the county commissioners and the county advisory board a financial plan in such form as the board of trustees may approve.

Said financial plan must be approved by the county commissioners of the county of Worcester and the Worcester county advisory board prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. The board of trustees of Worcester county hospital may authorize expenditures up to five percent more than presented in the approved financial plan. If the board of trustees of Worcester county hospital wish to increase expenditures by more than five percent of the amount as presented in the approved financial plan, a revised financial plan shall be submitted to said county commissioners and the Worcester county advisory board for their approval.

SECTION 5. In order that the fiscal affairs of the hospital may be managed by the hospital board of trustees so as to reduce the cost to the taxpayers, an assessment need not be rendered at the close of any fiscal year in which a deficit occurs.

SECTION 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of section thirty-two of chapter thirty-five of the General Laws, the administrator of Worcester county hospital may expend funds from the Worcester county hospital operations account, established under section one for expenses, including travel expenses, arising from attendance by employees of said hospital at conferences and conventions without the commonwealth; provided, however, that the aggregate amount of all such expenditures proposed to be made in any fiscal year shall be included in the applicable financial plan or revised financial plan for that fiscal year submitted by said administrator under the provisions of section four and shall have been approved by the county commissioners of the county of Worcester and the county advisory board of said county, as provided in section four.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect upon its passage.