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Senate Bill 1623 |
Senate Author: Hinojosa |
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Effective: 6-14-13 |
House Sponsor: Guerra |
Under previous law, health care funding districts were statutorily created in certain counties located on the Texas-Mexico border, governed by a commission appointed by county commissioners and county judges, and had the power to impose an annual tax on all outpatient visits to an institutional care provider, defined as a licensed nonpublic hospital. Senate Bill 1623 amends provisions of the Health and Safety Code relating to the creation and operation of those districts. The bill repeals provisions regarding district administration, the powers and duties of a district, and certain financial and tax provisions, and instead authorizes a district to be created by order of the commissioners court of an eligible county, revises the types of counties in which a district may be created, provides for the governance of a district by the county's commissioners court, and authorizes the commission of a district to assess an annual mandatory payment on the net revenue of an institutional care provider. The bill revises the method districts are funded by requiring a mandatory payment to be paid by each institutional health care provider located in the district based on the institution's net patient revenue rather than by a tax assessed on all outpatient visits to the institution. The bill provides for the creation of a local provider participation fund by each district, consisting of revenue from those payments, certain money received from the Health and Human Services Commission relating to Medicaid supplemental payment program payments, and the earnings of the fund, and sets out the authorized uses of the money in the fund. The bill makes statutory provisions relating to the districts expire on December 31, 2016, and provides for the dissolution of a district and for the distribution of funds at the time a district is abolished.