42 USC 300e-4 – Loans and loan guarantees for initial operation costs
(a) Authority
The Secretary may—
(1) make loans to public or private health maintenance organizations to assist them in meeting the amount by which their costs of operation during a period not to exceed the first sixty months of their operation exceed their revenues in that period;
(2) make loans to public or private health maintenance organizations to assist them in meeting the amount by which their costs of operation, which the Secretary determines are attributable to significant expansion in their membership or area served and which are incurred during a period not to exceed the first sixty months of their operation after such expansion, exceed their revenues in that period which the Secretary determines are attributable to such expansion; and
(3) guarantee to non-Federal lenders payment of the principal of and the interest on loans made to private health maintenance organizations for the amounts referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2).
No loan or loan guarantee may be made under this subsection for the costs of operation of a health maintenance organization unless the Secretary determines that the organization has made all reasonable attempts to meet such costs, and unless the Secretary has made a grant or loan to, entered into a contract with, or guaranteed a loan for, the organization in fiscal year 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, or 1985 under this section or section 300e-3(b) 1 of this title (as in effect before October 1, 1985).
(b) Limitations
Terms Used In 42 USC 300e-4
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Secretary: means the Secretary of Health and Human Services. See 42 USC 201
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the aggregate amount of principal of loans made or guaranteed, or both, under subsection (a) for a health maintenance organization may not exceed $7,000,000. In any twelve-month period the amount disbursed to a health maintenance organization under this section (either directly by the Secretary, by an escrow agent under the terms of an escrow agreement, or by a lender under a guaranteed loan) may not exceed $3,000,000.
(2) The cumulative total of the principal of the loans outstanding at any time which have been directly made, or with respect to which guarantees have been issued, under subsection (a) may not exceed such limitations as may be specified in appropriation Acts.
(c) Source of loan funds
Loans under this section shall be made from the fund established under section 300e-7(e) of this title.
(d) Time limit on loans and loan guarantees
No loan may be made or guaranteed under this section after September 30, 1986.
(e) Repealed. Pub. L. 97-35, title IX, §947(c), Aug. 13, 1981, 95 Stat. 577
(f) Medically underserved populations
In considering applications for loan guarantees under this section, the Secretary shall give special consideration to applications for health maintenance organizations which will serve medically underserved populations.