1-1  By:  Hunter of Taylor (Senate Sponsor - Bivins)       H.B. No. 3120
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 1995;
    1-3  May 9, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
    1-4  and Human Services; May 17, 1995, reported favorably by the
    1-5  following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 17, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to certain nursing facilities receiving reimbursement
    1-9  under the state Medicaid program.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 32, Human Resources Code,
   1-12  is amended by adding Section 32.0245 to read as follows:
   1-13        Sec. 32.0245.  NURSING HOME BEDS FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES
   1-14  TREATING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.  The department shall waive for a
   1-15  nursing facility a restriction imposed by state law on the
   1-16  authority to contract under the state Medicaid program for nursing
   1-17  home beds based on the percentage of beds that are occupied in a
   1-18  geographical area if the facility:
   1-19              (1)  is affiliated with a medical school operated by
   1-20  the state;
   1-21              (2)  is participating in a research program for the
   1-22  care and treatment of persons with Alzheimer's disease; and
   1-23              (3)  is designed to separate and treat Alzheimer's
   1-24  disease by stage or functional level.
   1-25        SECTION 2.  If before implementing Section 32.0245, Human
   1-26  Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Texas Department of Human
   1-27  Services determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
   1-28  agency is necessary for implementation, the department shall
   1-29  request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that
   1-30  section until the waiver or authorization is granted.
   1-31        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-32  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-33  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-34  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-35  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-36  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-37  passage, and it is so enacted.
   1-38                               * * * * *