By Hunter of Taylor                                   H.B. No. 3120
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to certain nursing facilities receiving reimbursement
    1-3  under the state Medicaid program.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 32, Human Resources Code,
    1-6  is amended by adding Section 32.0245 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 32.0245.  NURSING HOME BEDS FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES
    1-8  TREATING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.  The department shall waive for a
    1-9  nursing facility a restriction imposed by state law on the
   1-10  authority to contract under the state Medicaid program for nursing
   1-11  home beds based on the percentage of beds that are occupied in a
   1-12  geographical area if the facility:
   1-13              (1)  is affiliated with a medical school operated by
   1-14  the state;
   1-15              (2)  is participating in a research program for the
   1-16  care and treatment of persons with Alzheimer's disease; and
   1-17              (3)  is designed to separate and treat Alzheimer's
   1-18  disease by stage or functional level.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  If before implementing Section 32.0245, Human
   1-20  Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Texas Department of Human
   1-21  Services determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
   1-22  agency is necessary for implementation, the department shall
   1-23  request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that
    2-1  section until the waiver or authorization is granted.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-7  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-8  passage, and it is so enacted.