SECTION 65. Health safety net office

(a) There shall be established within the office of Medicaid a health safety net office which shall be under the supervision and control of a director. The director shall be appointed by the secretary of the executive office and shall be a person of skill and experience in the field of health care finance and administration. The director shall be the executive and administrative head of the office and shall be responsible for administering and enforcing the law relative to the office and to each administrative unit of the office. The director shall receive such salary as may be determined by law, and shall devote full time to the duties of the office. In the case of an absence or vacancy in the office of the director, or in the case of disability as determined by the secretary of the executive office, the secretary of the executive office may designate an acting director to serve as director until the vacancy is filled or the absence or disability ceases. The acting director shall have all the powers and duties of the director and shall have similar qualifications as the director.

(b) The office shall have the following powers and duties: (i) to administer the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, established under section 66, and to require payments to the fund consistent with acute hospitals' and surcharge payors' liability to the fund, as determined under sections 67 and 68, and any further regulations promulgated by the office; (ii) to set in consultation with the office of Medicaid, reimbursement rates for payments from the fund to acute hospitals and community health centers for reimbursable health services provided to uninsured and underinsured patients and to disburse monies from the fund consistent with such rates; provided that the office shall implement a fee-for-service reimbursement system for acute hospitals; (iii) to promulgate regulations further defining: (1) eligibility criteria for reimbursable health services; (2) the scope of health services that are eligible for reimbursement by the Health Safety Net Trust Fund; (3) standards for medical hardship; and (4) standards for reasonable efforts to collect payments for the costs of emergency care; provided that the office shall verify eligibility using the eligibility system of the office of Medicaid and other appropriate sources to determine the eligibility of uninsured and underinsured patients for reimbursable health services and shall establish other procedures to ensure that payments from the fund are made for health services for which there is no other public or private third party payer, including disallowance of payments to acute hospitals and community health centers for health services provided to individuals if reimbursement is available from other public or private sources; (iv) to develop programs and guidelines to encourage maximum enrollment of uninsured individuals who receive health services reimbursed by the fund into health care plans and programs of health insurance offered by public and private sources and to promote the delivery of care in the most appropriate setting, provided that the programs and guidelines are developed in consultation with the commonwealth health insurance connector, established under chapter 176Q; and provided further that these programs shall not deny payments from the fund because services should have been provided in a more appropriate setting if the hospital was required to provide the services under 42 U.S.C. 1395 dd; (v) to conduct a utilization review program designed to monitor the appropriateness of services for which payments were made by the fund and to promote the delivery of care in the most appropriate setting; and to administer demonstration programs that reduce health safety net trust fund liability to acute hospitals, including a demonstration program to enable disease management for patients with chronic diseases, substance abuse and psychiatric disorders through enrollment of patients in community health centers and community mental health centers and through coordination between these centers and acute hospitals, provided, that the office shall report the results of these reviews annually to the joint committee on health care financing and the house and senate committees on ways and means; (vi) to enter into agreements or transactions with any federal, state or municipal agency or other public institution or with a private individual, partnership, firm, corporation, association or other entity and to make contracts and execute all instruments necessary or convenient for the carrying on of its business; (vii) to secure payment, without imposing undue hardship upon any individual, for unpaid bills owed to acute hospitals by individuals for health services that are ineligible for reimbursement from the Health Safety Net Trust Fund which have been accounted for as bad debt by the hospital and which are voluntarily referred by a hospital to the department for collection; provided, however that such unpaid charges shall be considered debts owed to the commonwealth and all payments received shall be credited to the fund; and provided, further, that all actions to secure such payments shall be conducted in compliance with a protocol previously submitted by the office to the joint committee on health care financing; (viii) to require hospitals and community health centers to submit to the office data that it reasonably considers necessary; (ix) to make, amend and repeal rules and regulations to effectuate the efficient use of monies from the Health Safety Net Trust Fund; provided, however, that the regulations shall be promulgated only after notice and hearing and only upon consultation with the board of the commonwealth health insurance connector, representatives of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals, the Alliance of Massachusetts Safety Net Hospitals, the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers; and (x) to provide an annual report at the close of each fund fiscal year to the joint committee on health care financing and the house and senate committees on ways and means, evaluating the processes used to determine eligibility for reimbursable health services, including the Virtual Gateway. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (1) an analysis of the effectiveness of these processes in enforcing eligibility requirements for publicly-funded health programs and in enrolling uninsured residents into programs of health insurance offered by public and private sources; (2) an assessment of the impact of these processes on the level of reimbursable health services by providers; and (3) recommendations for ongoing improvements that will enhance the performance of eligibility determination systems and reduce hospital administrative costs.