A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to create and provide funds for the Rural obstetrical and emergency department care incentive fund.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services the sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year.  These funds shall be used to provide funds for the Rural Obstetrical and Emergency Department Care Incentive Fund, as established in Section 2 of this act.
SECTION 2.  The Rural Obstetrical and Emergency Department Care Incentive Fund is established within the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Rural Health, and shall be used to make grants to physicians who are practicing obstetrics, or providing emergency department services, in rural and underserved areas of the State and are adversely affected by the high cost of liability insurance.  The grants shall be used solely for the purpose of subsidizing in whole or in part the costs associated with obtaining or maintaining liability insurance for physicians in rural and underserved health care manpower shortage areas of the State as defined by the Office of Rural Health. The Office of Rural Health shall establish guidelines for administering grant funds.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.