BILL ANALYSIS



S.B. 436
By: Montford (Rangel)
02-28-95
Committee Report (Unamended)


BACKGROUND

The Texas Council on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders is
created in Chapter 101 of the Health and Safety Code.  It is a
state government advisory panel authorized to generate
recommendations and advice on issues related to the care and
well-being of victims of Alzheimer's disease.  In 1993, the
council's chairman appointed a task force to evaluate the current
process for certifying special-care units for Alzheimer's
patients.

Following a yearlong study, the task force adopted several
recommendations to improve state government oversight of special-care units and to mandate the flow of basic information from
nursing homes with special-care units to Alzheimer's patients and
their families.  Subsequently, the Council voted to endorse
legislation to implement the requirement that facilities must
disclose information about their services.

PURPOSE

This bill encompasses the legislative recommendations of the
Texas Council on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders.
Specifically, the legislation is intended to increase the
disclosure of basic information about a licensed facility's
Alzheimer's care unit to family members of Alzheimer's victims.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that additional rulemaking
authority is expressly granted to the Board of Human Services in
Section 1 of this bill (Sec. 242.204), requiring the Board to
adopt rules governing the content of disclosure statements
mandated by this bill and establishing an administrative penalty.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Chapter 242, Health and Safety Code, is amended by
adding Subchapter H, "CARE FOR RESIDENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
AND RELATED DISORDERS," as follows:

Sec. 242.201 defines the scope of the subchapter as including an
institution that advertises, markets, or otherwise promotes
Alzheimer's services.

Sec. 242.202 requires an institution to provide to consumers and
other interested parties a disclosure statement describing its
Alzheimer's services, display the statement along with the
facility license, file the statement as part of the license
renewal process, and update the statement to reflect changes in
facility operations. Subsection (d) outlines the categories of
information the statement must contain, and (e) requires
institutions to update the statement to reflect changes in
operations.

Sec. 242.203 makes a violation of this subchapter subject to an
administrative penalty under Subchapter C, Chapter 242, Health
and Safety Code, and prohibits the revocation or suspension of an
operating license for violation of Subchapter H.

Sec. 242.204 requires the Board of Human Services to adopt rules
governing the content of the disclosure statement, consistent
with the information categories required by Section 242.202(d),
and establishing the amount of an administrative penalty for
violation of this subchapter.

SECTION 2.  Creates a task force to recommend the type and nature
of information that should be included in the disclosure
statement and lays out deadlines for carrying out the task
force's work. The task force is to be appointed by the chairman
of the Texas Council on Alzheimer's Disease and Related
Disorders.

SECTION 3.  Emergency clause.

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTION

S.B. 436 was considered in public hearing on February 28, 1995. Testifying for the bill were
Loretto Bonner, representing herself; Andrea R. Ford, representing Texas Health Care
Association and Living Centers of America; Roy Ray, representing American Association of
Retired Persons, Texas Senior Advocacy Coalition, and himself; and Charles Candler,
representing Alzheimer's Association Coalition of Texas. No one testified against the bill. A
motion to report S.B. 436 to the full House without amendment and with the recommendation
that it do pass carried with a vote of 7 Ayes, 0 Nays, 0 PNV, and 2 Absent.