---
kind: "section"
citation: "24 U.S.C. § 324"
title: "24"
title_heading: "Hospitals and Asylums"
number: "324"
heading: "Care and treatment of eligible persons until transfer and release"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/24/324"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Hospitalization of Mentally Ill Nationals Returned from Foreign Countries"
---

# §324. Care and treatment of eligible persons until transfer and release

- (a) **Place of hospitalization—** Until the transfer and release of an [eligible person](/usc/24/321.md?p=d) pursuant to [section 323 of this title](/usc/24/323.md), the [Secretary](/usc/24/321.md?p=b) is authorized to provide care and treatment for such person at any Federal hospital within or (pursuant to agreement) outside of the [Department](/usc/24/321.md?p=a), or (under contract or other arrangements made without regard to [section 6101 of title 41](/usc/41/6101.md)) at any other public or private hospital in any [State](/usc/24/321.md?p=c) and, for such purposes, to transfer such person to any such hospital from a place of temporary care provided pursuant to [section 322 of this title](/usc/24/322.md). In determining the place of such hospitalization, the [Secretary](/usc/24/321.md?p=b) shall give due weight to the best interests of the patient.
- (b) **Ineligible persons—** The authority of the [Secretary](/usc/24/321.md?p=b) to provide hospitalization for any person under this section shall not apply to any person for whose medical care and treatment any agency of the United States is responsible.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 86–571, § 4, July 5, 1960, 74 Stat. 309; Pub. L. 98–621, § 10(r), Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3381.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

In subsec. (a), “section 6101 of title 41” substituted for “section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended” on authority of Pub. L. 111–350, § 6(c), Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3854, which Act enacted Title 41, Public Contracts.

### Amendments

1984—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 98–621 substituted “any” for “Saint Elizabeth Hospital, at any other” after “for such person” in first sentence.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 1984 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 98–621 effective Oct. 1, 1987, see section 12(b) of Pub. L. 98–621 set out as an Effective Date note under section 225 of this title.