Hospitals are required to care for indigent patients.
The home takes in elderly and indigent patients, many of whom rely on Medicaid and Medicare.
It also offers a welfare service for indigent patients and their families.
Legal aid lawyers welcomed this part of the proposal, saying it would protect indigent patients against inflated charges.
In America, where the price is 50 times higher, a federal law has provided the treatment to indigent patients since 1987.
Waiving payments for indigent patients or to placate those who have complaints about their treatment "should not pose legal issues," however, they said.
Hospitals do provide charity care, to varying degrees; the industry estimates that statewide it swallows about $1.7 billion a year in unpaid bills, mostly for indigent patients.
With no way to recover the cost of services to indigent patients, some health care facilities run the risk of closing.
Under her desk, Ms. Tennenbaum keeps bags of donated clothes, and she often dips into petty cash and makes a Payless run to buy shoes for indigent patients.
Hospitals that provide free care to the most indigent patients would get a one-time federal reimbursement of $365 million, and an extra $30 million from the state.
But last week, the director of the Jefferson County public nursing home was told that the county could no longer afford to bury indigent patients.
