J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                        37

Attorney General, the State Reporter, the Adjutant General, the
Treasurer, Comptroller, and the Commissioner of the Land Office
shall take and subscribe the said oath before the Governor and the
same shall be preserved in a book to be kept by the Secretary of State.

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
contingent upon and contemporaneous with the adoption by the quali-
fied voters of Maryland of amendments to the Constitution of Mary-
land as proposed by Chapter ------ of the Acts of 1966 (------ Bill

No.------).

Approved March 23, 1966.

CHAPTER 13

(Senate Bill 4)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Section 601 (c)
of Article 43 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1965 Supple-
ment), title "Health", subtitle "Chronic Hospitals and Infirm-
aries", to provide that if any person is a patient in a chronic hospi-
tal or infirmary for a period in excess of thirty months, the rate
chargeable to the family of the patient, after the thirty-month
period, shall not exceed twenty-five per cent (25%) of the per capita
cost.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Section 601 (c) of Article 43 of the Annotated Code of Mary-
land (1965 Supplement), title "Health", subtitle "Chronic Hospitals
and Infirmaries", be and it is hereby repealed and re-enacted, with
amendments, to read as follows:

601.

(c) If as a result of such investigation, the collection unit shall
determine that such person, his or her relatives, or other persons
shall be required to pay for his or her care or a part thereof, it shall
specify the amount of such payments to be made, which shall not
exceed the average per diem cost of maintaining a patient in such
hospital, and the times when the same are to be made. Such average
per diem cost shall be determined annually by the State Comptroller
and the State Budget Director between September 1 and December 1.
The collection unit is authorized to set the rate of payments retro-
actively to become effective as of the date of admission to the hos-
pital or as of the date of beginning the investigations of the financial
condition of the patient and of other persons legally chargeable for
his maintenance and support, whichever is the later date; but the
effective date may not be set more than six months prior to the date
of the order unless there has been a failure on the part of the
patient's guardian or committee or other persons legally chargeable
with his maintenance and support, to file the financial reports or state-
ments required by the collection unit. The collection unit shall have
the power to require the relatives of any such persons or others
legally chargeable with his or her care, to enter into appropriate
and binding agreements with respect to the making of such pay-
ments, and may from time to time modify or change the terms