The secretary of social services shall extend financial assistance to persons suffering from chronic renal failure requiring dialysis or a transplant to help them obtain the medical, nursing, pharmaceutical, and technical services and supplies necessary for dialysis or transplants, including the renting or purchase of home dialysis equipment. Assistance may not exceed five thousand dollars annually for each eligible patient. Assistance for chronic renal failure may not exceed the amount that would be allowed for similar care and treatment under the medical assistance program authorized by chapter 28-6. A patient is not eligible for assistance under this chapter until the patient has exhausted all other sources of assistance, including veteran’s administration benefits, medical or hospital insurance, third–party liability, assistance under Titles XVIII or XIX of the Social Security Act, or other public or private benefits or assistance. Eligibility for assistance under chapter 28-13 is not considered as a source of assistance for purposes of this section.

Source: SL 1976, ch 219, § 4 (3); SL 1981, ch 214, § 2; SL 1995, ch 165.