By Maxey                                              H.B. No. 1713
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1713:
          By McCall                                         C.S.H.B. No. 1713
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the use of certain drugs for schizophrenics.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 533, Health and Safety
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 533.044 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 533.044.  USE OF CERTAIN DRUGS FOR CERTAIN PATIENTS.
    1-7  (a)  The department shall place on a clozapine treatment plan each
    1-8  patient in a state hospital for whom the treatment is medically
    1-9  feasible and appropriate.  The department may place a patient on a
   1-10  treatment plan using a drug other than clozapine if the drug
   1-11  produces results that are similar to or better than clozapine in
   1-12  treating schizophrenics.
   1-13        (b)  If a patient in a state hospital responds to a treatment
   1-14  plan required or authorized by Subsection (a) to the extent that
   1-15  the patient can be discharged from the hospital, the department
   1-16  shall:
   1-17              (1)  assist the patient in applying for disability
   1-18  benefits and for Medicaid if the patient is potentially eligible;
   1-19              (2)  place the patient in a community setting with
   1-20  continuing drug treatments and with medical monitoring;
   1-21              (3)  provide or ensure that the patient is provided
   1-22  supportive housing, rehabilitation services, and job placement, as
   1-23  appropriate; and
   1-24              (4)  provide outpatient care at state hospitals or
    2-1  require a local mental health authority to provide outpatient care,
    2-2  as appropriate.
    2-3        (c)  The department may use facility beds vacated by patients
    2-4  discharged through the use of a treatment plan required or
    2-5  authorized by Subsection (a) for other appropriate uses.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-7        (b)  Not later than January 1, 1994, the Texas Department of
    2-8  Mental Health and Mental Retardation shall place on a treatment
    2-9  plan using clozapine or another drug producing results similar to
   2-10  or better than clozapine in treating schizophrenics each patient in
   2-11  a state hospital for whom the treatment is medically feasible and
   2-12  appropriate, as required by Section 533.044, Health and Safety
   2-13  Code, as added by this Act.
   2-14        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.