Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 354 amends the Health and Safety Code to continue the Center for Rural Health Initiatives until 2011. The act requires the center to develop, implement, and update a rural health work plan to identify how the center and the state will assist rural communities in meeting rural health care needs, ways to address unmet needs, ways to coordinate the administration and delivery of rural health care service with other programs providing similar services, and the center's priorities to accomplish objectives of the plan. The act requires the center to work with health care providers, rural communities, universities, the Texas Department of Health, and all other health and human service related state agencies to develop the plan, to solicit public comment on the plan, and to submit the plan to its executive committee for approval. The act provides for the restructuring of the center's executive committee.

            In addition, the act requires the center to conduct a study on the establishment of a visiting physician program to provide temporary relief to rural physicians and includes certain sunset provisions that are applied to all agencies.