H.B. No. 2698
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the provision of long-term care services.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 4413(502), Revised Statutes, is amended
    1-5  by adding Section 10A to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 10A.  LONG-TERM CARE VISION.  (a)  In conjunction with
    1-7  the appropriate state agencies, the commissioner shall develop a
    1-8  plan for access to individualized long-term care services for
    1-9  persons with functional limitations or medical needs and their
   1-10  families that assists them in achieving and maintaining the
   1-11  greatest possible independence, autonomy, and quality of life.
   1-12        (b)  The guiding principles and goals of the plan focusing on
   1-13  the individual and the individual's family must:
   1-14              (1)  recognize that it is the policy of this state that
   1-15  children should grow up in families and that persons with
   1-16  disabilities and elderly persons should live in the setting of
   1-17  their choice; and
   1-18              (2)  ensure that persons needing assistance and their
   1-19  families will have:
   1-20                    (A)  the maximum possible control over their
   1-21  services;
   1-22                    (B)  a choice of a broad, comprehensive array of
   1-23  services designed to meet individual needs; and
    2-1                    (C)  the easiest possible access to appropriate
    2-2  care and support, regardless of the area of the state in which they
    2-3  live.
    2-4        (c)  The guiding principles and goals of the long-term care
    2-5  plan focusing on services and delivery of those services by the
    2-6  state must:
    2-7              (1)  emphasize the development of home-based and
    2-8  community-based services and housing alternatives to complement the
    2-9  long-term care services already in existence;
   2-10              (2)  ensure that services will be of the highest
   2-11  possible quality, with a minimum amount of regulation, structure,
   2-12  and complexity at the service level;
   2-13              (3)  recognize that maximum independence and autonomy
   2-14  represent major goals, and with those comes a certain degree of
   2-15  risk;
   2-16              (4)  maximize resources to the greatest extent
   2-17  possible, with the consumer receiving only the services that the
   2-18  consumer prefers and that are indicated by a functional assessment
   2-19  of need; and
   2-20              (5)  structure the service delivery system to support
   2-21  these goals, ensuring that any necessary complexity of the system
   2-22  is at the administrative level, not at the client level.
   2-23        (d)  The commission shall coordinate state services to ensure
   2-24  that the roles and responsibilities of the agencies providing
   2-25  long-term care are clarified and that duplication of services and
    3-1  resources is minimized.
    3-2        (e)  In this section, "long-term care" means the provision of
    3-3  health care, personal care, and assistance related to health and
    3-4  social services  over a sustained period to people of all ages and
    3-5  their families, regardless of the setting in which the care is
    3-6  given.
    3-7        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-13  passage, and it is so enacted.