36-2903.07. Trauma and emergency services fund

(Caution: 1998 Prop. 105 applies)

A. The trauma and emergency services fund is established consisting of monies deposited pursuant to section 5-601.02(H)(3)(b)(ii) and interest earned on those monies. The Arizona health care cost containment system administration shall administer the fund. The fund is not subject to appropriation, and expenditures from the fund are not subject to outside approval notwithstanding any statutory provision to the contrary.

B. Monies received pursuant to section 5-601.02 shall be deposited directly with the trauma and emergency services fund. On notice from the administration, the state treasurer shall invest and divest monies in the fund as provided by section 35-313, and monies earned from investment shall be credited to the fund. No monies in the trauma and emergency services fund shall revert to or be deposited in any other fund, including the state general fund. Monies in the trauma and emergency services fund are exempt from the provisions of section 35-190 relating to the lapsing of appropriations. Monies provided from the trauma and emergency services fund shall supplement, not supplant, existing monies.

C. Monies in the fund shall only be used to reimburse hospitals in Arizona for unrecovered trauma center readiness costs and unrecovered emergency services costs as provided for in this section.

D. For purposes of this section:

1. " Trauma center readiness costs" means clinical, professional and operational costs that are incurred by a level I trauma center and that are necessary for the provision of level I trauma care on a twenty-four hour, seven days per week basis. Trauma center readiness costs include only those administrative and overhead costs that are directly associated with providing level I trauma care.

2. " Emergency services costs" means clinical, professional and operational costs that are necessarily incurred by a hospital in providing emergency services.

3. " Unrecovered" means the difference between the costs incurred by a hospital in providing the service and the amount that the hospital has been paid for providing the service.

E. Within six months of the effective date of this section, the administration shall promulgate rules pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes title 42, chapter 6, except that the rules shall not be subject to article 5 of that chapter. The rules shall set forth:

1. A methodology to determine Arizona hospitals' unrecovered trauma center readiness costs and unrecovered emergency services costs;

2. A procedure to distribute all monies from the trauma and emergency services fund to Arizona hospitals in proportion to those hospitals' unrecovered trauma center readiness costs and unrecovered emergency services costs.

F. The administration shall distribute all monies from the trauma and emergency services fund to Arizona hospitals in accordance with the rules promulgated pursuant to this section.