By Clemons                                            H.B. No. 1971
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to claims against non-profit hospital corporations having
    1-3  a patient mix of fifty percent (50%) or more persons who are
    1-4  eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, charity care, and/or are indigent
    1-5  at the time an incident is alleged to have occurred and for which
    1-6  non-profit hospital corporation bonds are issued under the Health
    1-7  Facilities Development Act.
    1-8        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-9        SECTION 1.  The Health Facilities Development Act (Chapter
   1-10  221, Health and Safety Code, Vernon's Texas Codes) is amended by
   1-11  adding Section 221.069 to read as follows:
   1-12        Sec. 221.069.  (a)  Each non-profit hospital corporation that
   1-13  has a patient mix of fifty percent (50%) or more persons who are
   1-14  eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, charity care, and/or are indigent
   1-15  at the time an incident is alleged to have occurred and for which
   1-16  non-profit hospital corporation bonds or other obligations are or
   1-17  have been issued by a development corporation, are declared to be
   1-18  and shall be treated as a governmental unit under and for the
   1-19  purposes of Chapter 101, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and the
   1-20  officers and employees of each such non-profit hospital corporation
   1-21  are declared to be and shall be treated as the employees of a
   1-22  governmental unit for the purposes of Chapter 101, Civil Practices
   1-23  and Remedies Code.
    2-1        (b)  This section shall apply to all claims made on or after
    2-2  the effective date of this Act.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.