Hosp. & Healthsystem Ass’n of Pa. v. Commonwealth of Pa. (Summary)
GOVERNMENT MALPRACTICE FUND
Hosp. & Healthsystem Ass’n of Pa. v. Commonwealth of Pa., Nos. 20 MAP 2010, 21 MAP 2010 (Pa. Sept. 26, 2013)
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in determining the constitutionality of legislation, Act 50 of the Fiscal Code, which mandated a one-time transfer of money from the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (“MCARE”) Fund to the Pennsylvania General Fund, held that legislative bodies have the authority to control special funds to serve the changing needs of the government, specifically when surplus monies continue in the fund after the accomplishment of its purposes. Whether the transfer of money here represented such a surplus in the MCARE Fund at the time Act 50 was passed had yet to be determined.
In this case, the MCARE Fund, although labeled a “special fund” requiring providers to pay substantial monetary assessments and providing a secondary layer of liability coverage to providers, was a trust fund in nature whose monies were held to satisfy judgments against the health care providers such that the providers retained a vested entitlement to have the money utilized in the manner directed by the MCARE Act. Therefore, although the amendment to the Fiscal Code transferring $100 million from the MCARE Fund to the General Fund implicated the providers’ due process rights, the question of the legislation’s constitutionality required further factual development.