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SENATE BILL 1839 |
SENATE AUTHOR: Moncrief et al. |
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EFFECTIVE: See below |
HOUSE SPONSOR: Eiland et al. |
Senate Bill 1839 is the Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Act. The bill amends the Health and Safety Code to require that in order to hold a nursing home license, an institution must maintain professional liability insurance coverage against the liability of the institution for a health care liability claim. The bill establishes requirements for coverage, including the annual minimum coverage in certain circumstances.
The bill amends the Insurance Code to establish certain means of controlling liability insurance costs for nursing homes, including the creation of a revenue bond program to raise funds to provide professional liability insurance through the Medical Liability Insurance Underwriting Association. It requires the commissioner to adopt best practices for risk management and loss control that may be used by for-profit and not-for-profit nursing homes and allows an insurance company or the Texas Medical Liability Insurance Underwriting Association to consider whether a nursing home adopts and implements the best practices adopted by the commissioner when determining the rates for professional liability insurance.
The bill requires the Texas Department of Human Services to establish an early warning system to detect conditions that could be detrimental to residents, including an analysis of financial and quality of care indicators that would predict the need for the department's action. Quality of care monitors are required to be sent to monitor facilities in unannounced visits to assess the overall quality of life and specific conditions in the facility that are directly related to patient care.
The bill establishes provisions for the amelioration of certain violations by nursing or convalescent homes and the circumstances under which a plan for amelioration may be implemented.
The bill also establishes a quality assurance fee to be imposed on intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded.
The bill amends the Human Resources Code to require a surveyor to complete a basic training program before the surveyor inspects, surveys, or investigates a long-term care facility, and it sets other requirements for the training of surveyors. The bill also requires the Health and Human Services Commission to ensure that the rules governing rates paid for nursing home services under the medical assistance program improve the quality of care by providing incentives for increasing direct care staff, wages, and benefits and, subject to the availability of funds, incentives that incorporate the use of a quality of care index, a customer satisfaction index, and a resolved complaints index developed by the commission.
The bill amends the Government Code to require the commission to adopt procedures to review certain citations and penalties assessed for nursing homes, intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded, and assisted living facilities. The bill requires the commission to establish an informal dispute resolution process to provide for the adjudication of disputes relating to certain proposed enforcement actions or related proceedings, and it sets components to be included in the process.
The bill takes effect June 15, 2001, except the requirement for liability insurance, which takes effect September 1, 2003, and a section relating to Senate Bill 772, which takes effect September 1, 2001.