By:  Patterson, J.                                     S.B. No. 982
       73R2087 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of the Texas Department of Human Services
    1-3  to assess monetary penalties against a home or community care
    1-4  provider.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 32, Human Resources Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Section 32.0215 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 32.0215.  HOME OR COMMUNITY CARE PROVIDERS:  CIVIL
    1-9  MONETARY PENALTIES.  (a)  The department may include in a contract
   1-10  for the delivery of medical assistance by a home or community care
   1-11  provider a provision for monetary penalties to be assessed for a
   1-12  contract violation or any violation of home or community care
   1-13  requirements, as required by 42 U.S.C.  Section 1396t(j).
   1-14        (b)  The department shall develop rules governing the
   1-15  application of civil money penalties, including rules prescribing:
   1-16              (1)  criteria that describe when and how a civil money
   1-17  penalty may be assessed and the amount of the penalty;
   1-18              (2)  a system to ensure standard and consistent
   1-19  application of the penalties throughout the state; and
   1-20              (3)  an administrative appeals process to adjudicate
   1-21  claims in contested cases in accordance with the Administrative
   1-22  Procedure and Texas Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas
   1-23  Civil Statutes).
   1-24        (c)  Rules adopted under this section must be designed to
    2-1  minimize the time between the identification of a violation and the
    2-2  final imposition of a penalty.  Rules adopted under this section
    2-3  may authorize the imposition of a penalty that assesses and
    2-4  collects a monetary penalty, with interest, for a minimum penalty
    2-5  period and on a subsequent per diem basis.
    2-6        (d)  A penalty must be appropriate to the violation.  The
    2-7  department may assess incrementally more severe penalties for
    2-8  repeated or uncorrected violations.
    2-9        (e)  The department shall review a penalized provider within
   2-10  10 working days after the provider notifies the department that the
   2-11  deficiency that caused the imposition of the penalty has been
   2-12  corrected.  If the department is unable to review the provider
   2-13  within that 10-working-day period, the penalty ceases on the
   2-14  earlier of the last day of the minimum penalty period or the date
   2-15  the provider gives notice to the department.
   2-16        (f)  Money collected as a result of the imposition of
   2-17  penalties may be used for the protection of the health or property
   2-18  of an individual whose personal property was lost due to a failure
   2-19  of a home or community care provider to meet the requirements for
   2-20  participation as a provider of home or community care.
   2-21        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-22  applies only to a contract between the department and a home or
   2-23  community care provider that is entered into on or after that date.
   2-24        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-25  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-26  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-27  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.