Massachusetts General Laws ch. 29 sec. 2OOO – Commonwealth Care Trust Fund
Section 2OOO. There is hereby established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund. The secretary of administration and finance shall be the trustee of the fund and shall expend money in the fund for the purposes described herein.
Terms Used In Massachusetts General Laws ch. 29 sec. 2OOO
- 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
- 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.
- Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
There shall be credited to the trust fund: (a) employer medical assistance contributions under section 189 of chapter 149; (b) all revenue from surcharges imposed under section 18 of chapter 176Q; (c) any transfers from the Health Safety Net Trust Fund established in section 66 of chapter 118E; (d) revenues deposited from penalties collected under chapter 111M; and (e) any revenue from appropriations or other monies authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund. Amounts credited to the fund shall be expended without further appropriation for programs administered by the commonwealth health insurance connector authority pursuant to chapter 176Q that are designed to increase health coverage for residents of the commonwealth. Money from the fund may be transferred to the Health Safety Net Trust Fund or any successor fund, as necessary to provide payments to acute hospitals and community health centers for reimbursable health services. Not later than January 1, the comptroller shall report an update of revenues for the current fiscal year and prepare estimates of revenues to be credited to the fund in the subsequent fiscal year. The comptroller shall file this report with the secretary of administration and finance, the secretary of health and human services, the joint committee on health care financing and the house and senate committees on ways and means. To accommodate timing discrepancies between the receipt of revenue and related expenditures, the comptroller may certify for payment amounts not to exceed the most recent estimate of revenues as certified by the secretary of administration and finance to be deposited under this section. Monies remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund; provided, however, that the comptroller shall report the amount remaining in the fund at the end of each fiscal year to the house and senate committees on ways and means.