
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 23, 2000 and December 4, 2001]
[CITE: 42USC248]

 
                 TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
 
                    CHAPTER 6A--PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
 
                SUBCHAPTER II--GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES
 
        Part C--Hospitals, Medical Examinations, and Medical Care
 
Sec. 248. Control and management of hospitals; furnishing 
        prosthetic and orthopedic devices; transfer of patients; 
        disposal of articles produced by patients; disposal of money and 
        effects of deceased patients; payment of burial expenses
        
    The Surgeon General, pursuant to regulations, shall--
    (a) Control, manage, and operate all institutions, hospitals, and 
stations of the Service, including minor repairs and maintenance, and 
provide for the care, treatment, and hospitalization of patients, 
including the furnishing of prosthetic and orthopedic devices; and from 
time to time, with the approval of the President, select suitable sites 
for and establish such additional institutions, hospitals, and stations 
in the States and possessions of the United States as in his judgment 
are necessary to enable the Service to discharge its functions and 
duties;
    (b) Provide for the transfer of Public Health Service patients, in 
the care of attendants where necessary, between hospitals and stations 
operated by the Service or between such hospitals and stations and other 
hospitals and stations in which Public Health Service patients may be 
received, and the payment of expenses of such transfer;
    (c) Provide for the disposal of articles produced by patients in the 
course of their curative treatment, either by allowing the patient to 
retain such articles or by selling them and depositing the money 
received therefor to the credit of the appropriation from which the 
materials for making the articles were purchased;
    (d) Provide for the disposal of money and effects, in the custody of 
the hospitals or stations, of deceased patients; and
    (e) Provide, to the extent the Surgeon General determines that other 
public or private funds are not available therefor, for the payment of 
expenses of preparing and transporting the remains of, or the payment of 
reasonable burial expenses for, any patient dying in a hospital or 
station.

(July 1, 1944, ch. 373, title III, Sec. 321, 58 Stat. 695; June 25, 
1948, ch. 654, Sec. 2, 62 Stat. 1017; Pub. L. 95-622, title II, 
Sec. 266, Nov. 9, 1978, 92 Stat. 3437.)


                               Amendments

    1978--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 95-622 struck out ``, and tobacco'' after 
``orthopedic devices''.
    1948--Subsec. (a). Act June 25, 1948, Sec. 2(a), amended subsec. (a) 
generally, continuing authority of Service to furnish tobacco to 
patients being treated by it.
    Subsec. (e). Act June 25, 1948, Sec. 2(b), added subsec. (e).

                          Transfer of Functions

    Functions of Public Health Service, Surgeon General of Public Health 
Service, and all other officers and employees of Public Health Service, 
and functions of all agencies of or in Public Health Service transferred 
to Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare by Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 
1966, eff. June 25, 1966, 31 F.R. 8855, 80 Stat. 1610, set out as a note 
under section 202 of this title. Secretary of Health, Education, and 
Welfare redesignated Secretary of Health and Human Services by section 
509(b) of Pub. L. 96-88 which is classified to section 3508(b) of Title 
20, Education.

                         Delegation of Functions

    Functions of President delegated to Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, see Ex. Ord. No. 11140, Jan. 30, 1964, 29 F.R. 1637, as 
amended, set out as a note under section 202 of this title.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 254e, 260a of this title.
