By:  Rabuck                                           H.B. No. 1117
       73R1147 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to dental care for long-term care patients.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 32.024, Human Resources Code, is amended
    1-5  by adding Subsection (t) to read as follows:
    1-6        (t)  The department shall establish a program to provide
    1-7  basic oral health care to meet the needs of long-term care facility
    1-8  residents, including emergency care, preventive care, and basic
    1-9  restorative dentistry.  The department shall adjust payment rates
   1-10  to adequately reimburse a facility for the increased level of care
   1-11  prescribed by this subsection.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-15  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   1-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.