Massachusetts General Laws Part I. Administration of the Government (Ch. 1-182) Ch. 111, § 77

The department shall have responsibility for providing hospital care and treatment for all persons resident in the commonwealth suffering from tuberculosis and who need such hospital care. Such care and treatment may be made available in hospitals within the department or under a contract basis in other public or private hospitals or sanatoria licensed for such care under section seventy-one. Contracts for such care may be made by the department under such arrangements as are determined reasonable and adequate by the department except in the case of county hospitals where contracts shall be made in accord with section seventy-eight.