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House Bill 2550 |
House Author: Patrick |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
Senate Sponsor: Zaffirini |
House Bill 2550 amends the Education Code to require the institution of higher education closest geographically to a public high school in Texas identified by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as substantially below the state average in the number of graduates who enroll in higher education institutions to enter into an agreement with that high school to develop a plan to increase the number of students from that high school enrolling in higher education institutions. The bill requires the institution to include the plan and the plan's results in its annual report to the coordinating board; requires the coordinating board to include a summary of those results in its annual "Closing the Gaps" progress report; and repeals provisions relating to a previous higher education assistance plan and higher education enrollment assistance program.
House Bill 2550 requires the coordinating board, using funds appropriated for graduate medical education residency program expansion, to award one-time planning grants to entities in Texas that have never had a graduate medical education program and are eligible for Medicare funding of graduate medical education; grants for graduate medical education programs to enable those programs to fill accredited but unfilled first-year residency positions; grants to enable existing graduate medical education programs to increase the number of first-year residency positions or to provide for the establishment of new graduate medical education programs with first-year residency positions; and, if appropriated funds are still available after all eligible applications for the preceding grants have been funded, grants to support residents who have completed at least three years of residency and whose residency program is in a field in which Texas has less than 80 percent of the national average of physicians per 100,000 population.
House Bill 2550 requires the coordinating board, subject to available funds and with the authorized use of up to three percent of appropriated funds for administrative costs, to establish a grant program to award incentive payments to medical schools that administer innovative programs designed to increase the number of primary care physicians in Texas. The bill also requires the coordinating board to administer the resident physician expansion grant program as a competitive grant program to encourage the creation of new graduate medical education positions through community collaboration and innovative funding.
House Bill 2550 authorizes a physician to complete one or more years of practice required to be eligible for physician loan repayment assistance in a location other than a designated health professional shortage area, after funds have been fully allocated for the program year to physicians who qualify based on practice in such a designated shortage area, if, during the applicable year or years, the physician provides health care services to a designated number of patients who are recipients under Medicaid or the Texas Women's Health Program according to criteria established by the coordinating board in consultation with the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). The bill requires HHSC, for the purposes of physician loan repayment assistance, to seek any federal matching funds that are available and requires any such funds to be to be deposited in the physician education loan repayment program account for the limited purpose of providing loan repayment assistance to physicians who establish eligibility based on the provision of health care services to Medicaid recipients and child health plan program enrollees.