(a)

(1) In all cases where a resident of a county or municipality assigned a quota in § 6-64-505 seeks to use the quota to defray any part of the expense of his or her medical service, including hospitalization, at the State Medical Center, the resident must first have been determined by his or her county judge or chief administrative officer of his or her municipality to be unable to pay for all or any part of the service.

(2) The county judge or chief administrative officer may then certify in writing that the resident is eligible for such care.

(3) There shall be no charge made against the county or municipality for medical care until the person shall be so certified, unless the certification is waived as authorized in this section.

(b) (1) (A) The county judge or chief administrative officer may elect to waive the above certification procedure, except that such waiver shall not apply to counties or cities which, in the preceding year, have recorded a total of two thousand (2,000) or more patient days at the medical center. In such event, individual certification of patients will be required as a prerequisite to admission of such patients to the medical center hospital.

(B) In counties and cities where waiver of individual certification is applicable, individual certification of patients will be required in all cases where the hospitalization of the patient would cause the current month's quota to be exceeded.

(2) The judge or officer waiving the certification procedure must so notify the medical center in writing.

(3) It shall be the duty of the medical center to notify the county judge or administrative officer at the time the rate of use of his or her county or municipal quota shall have been exceeded. However, any county, or municipality of over ten thousand (10,000) population, may enter into an agreement in writing with the medical center for the admission of medical indigents with acute emergency conditions to be charged against the quota of such county or city without requiring the certification procedure mentioned above.

(c) Certification of patients by any municipality or county may be by telephone if the date of the telephone conversation, the name of the county judge, or chief administrative officer of the city, authorizing the certification, and all other necessary information is reduced to writing by the appropriate official of the medical center and maintained in a file as a public record.

(d)

(1) Any person certified to the medical center as a medical indigent who has the ability to pay for a part of the cost of the medical or hospital care received shall pay such part of the cost of care received and that amount paid shall be allowed as a credit against any charge against the county or municipality for such service during the calendar month in which payment is received.

(2) In the case of those medical indigents who are able to pay a part of the cost of their medical and hospital care, such fact shall be so stated in the certification from the county or city, which certification may include an estimate of the portion of medical and hospital costs the patient is able to pay, if any.

(e)

(1) In the case of any county having one (1) or more cities of over ten thousand (10,000) population therein, the county judge of the county and the chief administrative officer of each such city may enter into an agreement for the establishment of a central certifying office from which all patients admitted to the State Medical Center as medical indigents from such county and the cities therein shall be certified.

(2) Upon the establishment of such a central certifying office, notice thereof shall be given to the Chancellor for Health Sciences, and all patients certified to the State Medical Center from such county or any city of ten thousand (10,000) or over population therein shall be charged against the quota of such county or city, as the case may be.

(f) The Department of Human Services shall assist any county or municipality affected by this subchapter, upon request therefor, in determining the economic status of any person seeking admission to the medical center as a medical indigent.

(g) It also shall be the duty of the medical center to investigate the ability of the patient or others chargeable with his or her support to pay the expense of the treatment and care rendered, taking into consideration the recommendation of the certifying official of the county or municipality involved.