(a) Charges for the care and treatment of each patient receiving service from a county mental health program shall not exceed the actual cost thereof as determined or approved by the Director of Health Care Services in accordance with standard accounting practices. The director may include the amount of expenditures for capital outlay or the interest thereon, or both, in his or her determination of actual cost. The responsibility of a patient, his or her estate, or his or her responsible relatives to pay the charges and the powers of the director with respect thereto shall be determined in accordance with Article 4 (commencing with Section 7275) of Chapter 3 of Division 7.

(b) The Director of Health Care Services may delegate to each county all or part of the responsibility for determining the financial liability of patients to whom services are rendered by a county mental health program and all or part of the responsibility for determining the ability of the responsible parties to pay for services to minor children who are referred by a county for treatment in a state hospital. Liability shall extend to the estates of patients and to responsible relatives, including the spouse of an adult patient and the parents of minor children. The Director of Health Care Services may also delegate all or part of the responsibility for collecting the charges for patient fees. Counties may decline this responsibility as it pertains to state hospitals, at their discretion. If this responsibility is delegated by the director, the director shall establish and maintain the policies and procedures for making the determinations and collections. Each county to which the responsibility is delegated shall comply with the policy and procedures.

(c) The director shall prepare and adopt a uniform sliding scale patient fee schedule to be used in all mental health agencies for services rendered to each patient. In preparing the uniform patient fee schedule, the director shall take into account the existing charges for state hospital services and those for community mental health program services. If the director determines that it is not practicable to devise a single uniform patient fee schedule applicable to both state hospital services and services of other mental health agencies, the director may adopt a separate fee schedule for the state hospital services which differs from the uniform patient fee schedule applicable to other mental health agencies.

(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 34, Sec. 145. (SB 1009) Effective June 27, 2012.)