By Naishtat                                           H.B. No. 1428
       74R2350 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to streamlining the determination of Medicaid eligibility.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  (a)  The Health and Human Services Commission
    1-5  shall expand its existing integrated eligibility pilot programs to
    1-6  include the Harris County Hospital District and The University of
    1-7  Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to enable those health care
    1-8  providers to determine whether a patient is eligible for the
    1-9  Medicaid program.
   1-10        (b)  A contract with the Harris County Hospital District or
   1-11  The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston shall:
   1-12              (1)  specify performance-based measures to ensure error
   1-13  rates are kept within acceptable federal limits; and
   1-14              (2)  authorize the district and medical branch to
   1-15  simplify processes as much as possible and to use proprietary
   1-16  software.
   1-17        (c)  The Texas Department of Human Services shall:
   1-18              (1)  develop the ability to accept automated file
   1-19  information directly; and
   1-20              (2)  establish standards for other automated systems.
   1-21        (d)  The Health and Human Services Commission shall study the
   1-22  feasibility of enabling contractors or agencies other than the
   1-23  Texas Department of Human Services to provide or assist in the
   1-24  provision of client eligibility studies, determinations, and
    2-1  certifications.  In determining feasibility, the commission shall
    2-2  consider:
    2-3              (1)  error rates;
    2-4              (2)  the state's potential liability;
    2-5              (3)  expansion of the client population; and
    2-6              (4)  the federal single state agency restrictions.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-13  passage, and it is so enacted.