(a) Any state agency, institution or board of the state represented by its department head, officer, commissioner or deputy commissioner as defined in § 4-5 and 4-8, is authorized to sit as a member of the board of a consortium organized as a nonstock, nonprofit corporation pursuant to chapter 602 or any predecessor statutes thereto, for the purpose of coordinating public and private sector health and social service delivery systems to provide: (1) The highest possible quality of health and social services at the lowest practicable cost to all persons needing such services; (2) the most advanced coordinated programs possible in health and social service delivery areas; (3) the coordination of members’ services to eliminate to the greatest possible degree both unnecessary duplication and incomplete coverage in the providing of such services and facilities; (4) the greatest possible state-wide integration of health and social service programs; and (5) the education of the public as to the health and social service needs of the state and the goals of the consortium with regard thereto.

(b) Any state agency, institution or board may enter into such long-term contracts and other agreements as will further the purposes of each consortium organized in accordance with subsection (a) of this section, and as contained in each consortium’s certificate of incorporation, provided the certificate of incorporation of each such consortium shall include a provision that no state agency, institution or board of the state sitting as a member of the board of the consortium shall be obligated to undertake or participate in any activity, which the representative of the state agency, institution or board, acting in his sole discretion, determines to be in violation of the primary responsibility of his agency, board or institution as provided in the general statutes.