§321-232 Revenues; deposit into state general fund. (a) The department of health shall establish reasonable fees for services rendered to the public by the department of health, any county, or private agency under this part; provided that all such revenues which shall be collected by the department of health and the respective counties shall be deposited into the state general fund, except such amounts necessary to provide for collection services for bad debt accounts. Fees required to be set by this section shall be established in accordance with chapter 91.

(b) No ambulance services, or any other emergency medical services available from or under the authority of this chapter shall be denied to any person on the basis of the ability of the person to pay therefor or because of the lack of prepaid health care coverage or proof of such ability or coverage.

(c) In the event of nonpayment of any fees required to be assessed by this section, the department of health shall determine whether the recipient of such services is financially able to pay such fees and make every reasonable effort to collect such fees. In the event the department finds the person is without sufficient resources to pay for the services, no further action to collect the fees shall be taken. If the services are paid by a county or any other entity, and collection of such fee is delegated by contractual agreement to the county or other agency which provides the services, the county or other agency shall forward records relating to unpaid fees for action by the department of health under this subsection. No county or other entity shall make a final determination of the ability of a person to pay under this subsection. Any determination of ability to pay for purposes of this subsection shall be in accordance with rules which the department of health shall adopt, subject to chapter 91, governing such determinations. [L 1978, c 148, pt of §1; am L 1984, c 77, §1]