Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 1053 amends the Government Code to require the commissioner of health and human services to establish an advisory committee to develop a strategic plan to eliminate disparities in Medicaid and the child health plan program (CHIP) capitation rates, fee-for-service expenditures, and professional service expenditures in the Texas-Mexico border region. The bill requires the committee to report on the analysis and comparison of rates and expenditures and to make recommendations to the commissioner to address the problems documented in the report. The bill requires that on the advice of the committee, the Health and Human Services Commission must address certain issues such as eliminating the disparities in rates and expenditures, providing bonuses to physicians providing Medicaid or CHIP services, and establishing the method to calculate the related data.

            The bill requires the commission to contract with a public university to measure changes in the number of Medicaid and CHIP providers to determine the effect in the change in rates and expenditures and whether funding was sufficient to produce measurable effects.