SECTION 126. Duties of commission

The commission shall review, and make recommendations for all new programs that provide for co-ordinating the services of the departments of public health, mental health, and transitional assistance, and of the rehabilitation commission. The commission shall, wherever feasible, recommend combined staff services for said departments and said commission in such areas as central accounting and fiscal operation, personnel services, legal, training, information, educational and statistical services, research for long-range planning and development, and joint studies.

The commission may serve as the communicative mechanism for the development and submission of plans to the various agencies of the federal government by state and local health and welfare agencies, and may serve in an advisory capacity for the receipt and disbursement of funds to medical schools, hospitals, laboratories, and other agencies participating in the planning, operation, and development of regional medical programs, hospitals, health centers and other facilities under any federal law providing such funds.

The commission may recommend the conduct of pilot studies, research and demonstration programs in co-ordinated health and welfare programming, and may receive and disburse funds to these ends. The commission may contract with the Massachusetts Health Research Institute, Inc., The Medical Foundation, Inc., the Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth, and other qualified organizations, associations, corporations, or individuals to carry on approved research studies and to submit reports recommending ways and means of co-ordinating, consolidating or in other ways improving health and welfare facilities in the commonwealth.

The commission shall maintain full co-operation with all departments, divisions, agencies and boards of the commonwealth, all of its political subdivisions, all hospitals, universities, and other agencies whose functions are encompassed by the objectives of the commission, and shall receive from them, and render to them, all possible assistance.