225C.12  Partial reimbursement to counties for local inpatient mental health care and treatment.
  1.  A county which pays, from county funds budgeted under section 331.424A, the cost of care and treatment of a person with mental illness who is admitted pursuant to a preliminary diagnostic evaluation under sections 225C.14 to 225C.17 for treatment as an inpatient of a hospital facility, other than a state mental health institute, which has a designated mental health program and is a hospital accredited by the accreditation program for hospital facilities of the joint commission on accreditation of health care organizations, is entitled to reimbursement from the state for a portion of the daily cost so incurred by the county. However, a county is not entitled to reimbursement for a cost incurred in connection with the hospitalization of a person who is eligible for medical assistance under chapter 249A, or who is entitled to have care or treatment paid for by any other third-party payor, or who is admitted for preliminary diagnostic evaluation under sections 225C.14 to 225C.17. The amount of reimbursement for the cost of treatment of a local inpatient to which a county is entitled, on a per-patient-per-day basis, is an amount equal to twenty percent of the average of the state mental health institutes’ individual average daily patient costs in the most recent calendar quarter for the program in which the local inpatient would have been served if the patient had been admitted to a state mental health institute.
  2.  A county may claim reimbursement by filing with the administrator a claim in a form prescribed by the administrator by rule. Claims may be filed on a quarterly basis, and when received shall be verified as soon as reasonably possible by the administrator. The administrator shall certify to the director of the department of administrative services the amount to which each county claiming reimbursement is entitled, and the director of the department of administrative services shall issue warrants to the respective counties drawn upon funds appropriated by the general assembly for the purpose of this section. A county shall place funds received under this section in the county mental health, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities services fund created under section 331.424A. If the appropriation for a fiscal year is insufficient to pay all claims arising under this section, the director of the department of administrative services shall prorate the funds appropriated for that year among the claimant counties so that an equal proportion of each county’s claim is paid in each quarter for which proration is necessary.
[C50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §227.16, 227.18; S81, §225C.11; 81 Acts, ch 78, §12, 20, ch 117, §1028]
96 Acts, ch 1129, §113; 96 Acts, ch 1183, §13; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §286