STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
September 19, 1974
Mr. Joe H. Neumayr
State's Attorney
Potter County
Gettysburg, South Dakota 57442
OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 74-41
County financial aid to private hospitals
Dear Mr. Neumayr:
You have requested an official opinion on certain questions dealing with the following factual situation:
Potter County is served by two nonprofit, private hospitals, both located within the boundaries of the county. Both of these hospitals are served by private medical clinics and have doctors available. Both hospitals provide the usual in-patient facilities for the treatment, care, and accommodation of patients, including the aged. One of these hospitals has requested of the board of county commissioners an appropriation of federal revenue sharing funds in the amount of $20,000 to be used 'for the purchase of beds, operating equipment, delivery room equipment, and similar equipment. The county commissioners are willing to make this appropriation if they have the authority to do so.
SDCL 28-18-6 reads in part:
The board of county commissioners ... and the governing bodies of the municipalities of this state, may, in their discretion, contribute sums of money annually not to exceed twenty thousand dollars per annum to nonprofit self-sustaining corporations formed for the care and accommodation of aged persons…
SDCL 34-8A-1 reads in part:
Notwithstanding any other provisions of law to the contrary, the board of county commissioners ... may, by unanimous vote of its members, grant, loan, or pay to the individual, upon such terms and on such conditions as the board shall set forth, moneys from any source of funds available to them for the purpose of ensuring the availability of professional medical services within the county.
SDCL 34-7A-5 reads in part:
No health care facility intending to embark upon a program of construction or modification of a health care facility, shall engage ... fund raising services with respect to the project until it has notified the area wide comprehensive health planning agency of its intention to engage such services ...
SDCL 34-7A-2(1) defines "health care facility" as any hospital, and SDCL 34-7 A-2(2) defines "construction or modification," in part as:
the purchase or acquisition by lease or deferred payment plan, of diagnostic or therapeutic equipment, which shall mean replacement of existing equipment, by a health care facility which requires a total expenditure in excess of fifty thousand dollars or will either expand or extend the scope or type of service rendered, or increase the bed complement of the facility.
In Official Opinion 74-15, dated April 29, 1974, it stated that pursuant to SDCL 34-8A-1, the county commissioners could, by unanimous vote, donate money to a private individual or organization for the purpose of purchasing, building and equipping a medical clinic which would be the property of such private individual or organization provided the commission deemed it necessary to ensure the availability of professional medical services, and providing that the county commission has funds legally available to them.
Your specific questions are as follows:
A. Does SDCL 28-18-6 give the county commssioners the requisite statutory authority to appropriate funds to an operating nonprofit private hospital for the purchase of equipment?
ANSWER: The limitation in SDCL 28-18-6 is not on what dollars can be granted pursuant thereto and be spent by the grantee, but instead limits who may be the grantee. Moneys may be contributed only to nonprofit self-sustaining corporations formed for the care and accommodation of aged persons under the provisions of SDCL 28-18-1 to 28-18-4, inclusive. Ch. 28-18 of the South Dakota Compiled Laws is entitled "Facilites for Care of the Aged." SDCL 28-18-6, therefore, deals only with the care of the aged.
B. Is SDCL 34-8A-1 a general purpose statute enacted to allow the county commissioners to appropriate funds to operating nonprofit private hospitals, or is it a statute enacted specifically to assist those counties that lack professional medical services in obtaining professional medical services?
ANSWER: SDCL 34-8A-I is not a "general purpose statute." The recipient of any benefit authorized by that statute is specifically limited to an individual and must be given for the purpose of ensuring the availability of professional medical services within the county.
SDCL 2-14-1 and SDCL 2-14-2 indicate that if a word is not specifically defined in SDCL 2-14-2 then it must be "understood in its ordinary sense." The word "individual" is not included in the statutory definitions of SDCL 2-14-2. It would appear therefore that SDCL 34-8A-1 could not be interpreted to allow a county to loan or pay money directly to a hospital to buy equipment.
However, it could be interpreted to allow an individual, attached to the hospital, to receive the grant or loan if at the same time it is shown that the purpose is to ensure the availability of professional medical services. The specific conditions and terms of the grant or loan, i.e., to buy certain equipment for a certain hospital, are determined and voted upon unanimously by the county commissioners, and it is they who must determine that the "purpose" is within the meaning of the statute.
The statute, SDCL 34-8A-1 is not to be used only by counties to obtain the professional medical services that they lack but also, may be used by counties to ensure they keep available what professional medical services they now have.
Respectfully submitted,
Kermit A. Sande
Attorney General
KAS:FRM:skh
