73R9795 DLF-F
          By Clemons                                            H.B. No. 1971
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1971:
          By Denton                                         C.S.H.B. No. 1971
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to claims against nonprofit hospital corporations having a
    1-3  patient mix of 50 percent or more of certain indigent persons.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 221, Health and Safety
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 221.069 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 221.069.  LIABILITY OF CERTAIN FACILITIES.  (a)  This
    1-8  section applies to a nonprofit hospital corporation:
    1-9              (1)  that has a patient mix of 50 percent or more
   1-10  persons who are eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, or charity care or
   1-11  who are indigent at the time a cause of action is alleged to have
   1-12  accrued;
   1-13              (2)  for which nonprofit hospital corporation bonds or
   1-14  other obligations are or have been issued by a development
   1-15  corporation; and
   1-16              (3)  located in a county with a population of not more
   1-17  than 100,000.
   1-18        (b)  A nonprofit hospital corporation to which this section
   1-19  applies is a governmental unit that is a unit of local government
   1-20  for purposes of Chapter 101, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
   1-21        (c)  A nonprofit hospital corporation to which this section
   1-22  applies may indemnify and defend its officers and employees of the
   1-23  corporation in the same manner as a local government may indemnify
    2-1  and defend its employees under Chapter 102, Civil Practice and
    2-2  Remedies Code.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-4  applies only to a cause of action filed on or after that date.  An
    2-5  action filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by
    2-6  the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this
    2-7  Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-8        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.