Bill 63.

Summary.

The bill would create the Board of Trustees of Hospital Manuel Amador Guerrero (Patronato del Hospital Manuel Amador Guerrero) as a nonprofit entity serving the public and social interest, with legal personality, its own assets, and administrative, economic, financial and operational autonomy. Its seat would be at Hospital Manuel Amador Guerrero in the Province of Colón. It defines terms guiding the Board’s work and assigns it responsibility for administering, maintaining and protecting the hospital complex and the assets entrusted to it. The hospital would provide preventive and curative care and rehabilitation, while carrying out teaching and research as a secondary care hospital for its region.

The Board’s assets would comprise state funds, contributions, subsidies, donations, bequests, service revenue, movable property and proceeds from other activities. The bill links the deductibility of private contributions to Article 697 of the Tax Code (Código Fiscal). The complex’s land and improvements would be in the Board’s custody and under its administration, while the land would remain state property. The Board would maintain, replace and improve buildings, equipment and instruments. Funding would include allocations from the General State Budget, payments every four months for patients treated at the hospital who are covered by the Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social), paid services and payments by insurers. Its budget would be no lower than the previous year’s. The bill also provides national tax exemptions, possible municipal exemptions by municipal agreement, and deductions for contributions or donations.

Members would represent the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud), the Colón Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social de Colón), the Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo), the Colón Free Zone, its users, the Colón Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, and civic organizations of the province of Colón. The bill identifies persons who could attend meetings with the right to speak, including a representative of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República). It governs decisions by absolute majority, alternates, incompatibilities, grounds for leaving office and three-year terms for civic or civil society representatives. Members would serve without pay. The Minister of Health or a designee would chair and legally represent the Board, which would elect its other officers annually. The medical director general would be the hospital’s highest authority, subject to the Board’s directions.

The Board’s powers would include organizing the hospital, approving and implementing its budget, regulating purchases and contracts, authorizing expenditures, and establishing internal auditing, charges and financial and operational reports. It would submit reports to the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic. It would define working arrangements with the Social Security Fund and submit human resources rules, prepared with union representatives, to the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo). It would establish recruitment competitions, appointments, evaluations and personnel rules under the Administrative Career Law (Ley de Carrera Administrativa). It would also oversee occupational health, biosafety, hospital waste, training, research and teaching agreements. A Council of Directors would advise the medical director and review scientific and research programs.

Staff would be selected through merit and competitive examinations, with appointment of the highest-scoring candidate. The management change would preserve present and future labor rights. Employees assigned to another institution could return or remain there after notifying the Board in writing within thirty calendar days of the law’s entry into force. The bill assigns prior review to internal audit and subsequent audits and oversight to the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic. It allows an external audit and reconsideration or appeal of the medical director’s administrative decisions. General regulations would complete the rules on organization and operation. Patients, hospital employees, insurers, educational institutions, and health and oversight bodies connected with the hospital in the province of Colón could be affected by its provisions.