By Ramsey                                              H.B. No. 648
       74R3760 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the personal needs allowance for certain Medicaid
    1-3  recipients who are residents of long-term care facilities.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 32.024, Human Resources Code, is amended
    1-6  by adding Subsection (t) to read as follows:
    1-7        (t)  The department shall set a personal needs allowance of
    1-8  not less than $40 a month for a resident of a convalescent or
    1-9  nursing home or related institution licensed under Chapter 242,
   1-10  Health and Safety Code, personal care facility, ICF-MR facility, or
   1-11  other similar long-term care facility who receives medical
   1-12  assistance.  The department may send the personal needs allowance
   1-13  directly to a resident who receives Supplemental Security Income
   1-14  (SSI) (42 U.S.C. Section 1381 et seq.).  This subsection does not
   1-15  apply to a resident who is participating in a medical assistance
   1-16  waiver program administered by the department.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-18  applies only to a personal needs allowance paid on or after that
   1-19  date.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.