37.2-717 - Department to investigate financial ability to pay expenses; assessments and contracts by Department. - Virginia Statutes

§ 37.2-717. Department to investigate financial ability to pay expenses;assessments and contracts by Department.

A. The Department shall investigate and determine which consumers or parents,guardians, conservators, trustees, or other persons legally responsible forconsumers are financially able to pay the expenses of the care, treatment ortraining, and maintenance, and the Department shall notify these consumers ortheir parents, guardians, conservators, trustees, or other legallyresponsible persons of the expenses of care, treatment or training, andmaintenance and, in general, of the provisions of this article.

B. The Department may assess or contract with any consumer or the parent,guardian, conservator, trustee, or other person liable for his support andmaintenance to recover care, treatment or training, and maintenance expenses.In arriving at the amount to be paid, the Department shall have due regardfor the financial condition and estate of the consumer, his present andfuture needs, and the present and future needs of his lawful dependents.Whenever it is deemed necessary to protect him or his dependents, theDepartment may assess or agree to accept a monthly sum for the consumer'scare, treatment or training, and maintenance that is less than the actual perdiem cost, provided that the estate of the consumer other than income shallnot be depleted below the sum of $500. Nothing contained in this title shallbe construed as making any such contract permanently binding upon theDepartment or prohibiting it from periodically reevaluating the actual perdiem cost of care, treatment or training, and maintenance and the financialcondition and estate of any consumer, his present and future needs, and thepresent and future needs of his lawful dependents and entering into a newagreement with the consumer or the parent, guardian, conservator, trustee, orother person liable for his support and maintenance, increasing or decreasingthe sum to be paid for the consumer's care, treatment or training, andmaintenance.

C. All contracts made by and between the Department and any person acting ina fiduciary capacity for any consumer adjudicated to be incapacitated underthe provisions of Article 1 (§ 37.2-1000 et seq.) of Chapter 10 of this titleand all assessments made by the Department upon that consumer or hisfiduciaries, providing for payment of the expenses of such consumer in anystate facility, shall be subject to the approval of any circuit court havingjurisdiction over the incapacitated person's estate or for the county or cityin which he resides or from which he was admitted to the state facility.

(Code 1950, §§ 37-125.4, 37-125.5; 1950, p. 917; 1956, Ex. Sess., c. 14;1960, c. 386; 1962, c. 80; 1968, c. 477, §§ 37.1-108, 37.1-109; 1971, Ex.Sess., c. 257; 1976, c. 671; 1997, cc. 801, 921; 2005, c. 716.)