SECTION 2TTTT. Community Hospital Reinvestment Trust Fund

(a) There shall be a Community Hospital Reinvestment Trust Fund to be expended, without further appropriation, by the secretary of health and human services. The fund shall consist of money from public and private sources, including gifts, grants and donations, interest earned on such money, any other money authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund and any funds provided from other sources. Money in the fund shall be used to provide annual financial support, consistent with the terms of this section, to eligible acute care hospitals. The secretary, as trustee, shall administer the fund and shall make expenditures from the fund consistent with this section.

(b) The secretary may incur expenses and the comptroller may certify amounts for payment in anticipation of expected receipts; provided, however, that no expenditure shall be made from the fund which shall cause the fund to be deficient at the close of a fiscal year. Revenues deposited in the fund that are unexpended at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in the following fiscal year.

(c) The secretary shall annually direct payments from the fund to eligible acute care hospitals. To be eligible to receive payment from the fund, an acute care hospital shall be licensed under section 51 of chapter 111 and shall not be a hospital with relative prices that are at or above 120 per cent of the statewide median relative price, as determined by the center for health information analysis.

(d) In directing payments, the secretary shall allocate payments to eligible acute care hospitals based on the proportion of each eligible acute care hospital's total gross patient service revenue to the combined gross patient service revenue of all eligible acute care hospitals in the prior hospital rate year; provided, however, that payments shall be adjusted to allocate proportionally greater payments to eligible acute care hospitals with relative prices that fall farthest below 120 per cent of the statewide median price. The secretary shall establish by regulation a formula to allocate payments pursuant to this subsection.

(e) The secretary may require as a condition of receiving payment from the fund that an eligible acute care hospital agree to an independent financial and operational audit to recommend steps to increase sustainability and efficiency of the acute care hospital.

(f) The executive office of health and human services shall promulgate regulations necessary to carry out this section.

(g) Not later than 30 days after payments are allocated to eligible acute care hospitals under this section, the secretary for health and human services shall file a report with the joint committee on health care finance and the house and senate committees on ways and means detailing the allocation and recipient of each payment.