By:  Sibley                                            S.B. No. 218
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to loan repayment assistance for certain family practice
    1-2  physicians.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 61.532, Education Code, is amended to
    1-5  read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 61.532.  Eligibility.  (a)  To be eligible to receive
    1-7  repayment assistance, a physician must apply to the coordinating
    1-8  board and have completed at least one year of medical practice:
    1-9              (1)  in private practice in an economically depressed
   1-10  or rural medically underserved area of the state; <or>
   1-11              (2)  for one of the following state agencies:
   1-12                    (A)  Texas Department of Health;
   1-13                    (B)  Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental
   1-14  Retardation;
   1-15                    (C)  Texas Department of Corrections; or
   1-16                    (D)  Texas Youth Commission; or
   1-17              (3)  for an approved family practice residency training
   1-18  program established under Subchapter I of this chapter.
   1-19        (b)  The coordinating board may by rule provide for repayment
   1-20  assistance on a pro rata basis for physicians practicing part-time
   1-21  for an approved family practice residency training program
   1-22  established under Subchapter I of this chapter or a state agency
   1-23  specified in Subsection (a) of this section.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 61.537, Education Code,
    2-1  is amended to read as follows:
    2-2        (a)  The coordinating board shall adopt rules necessary for
    2-3  the administration of this subchapter, including a rule that sets a
    2-4  maximum amount of repayment assistance that may be received by a
    2-5  physician in one year and a rule that authorizes the Family
    2-6  Practice Residency Advisory Committee to establish priorities among
    2-7  eligible physicians for repayment assistance.
    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,
   2-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-14  passage, and it is so enacted.