By Luna, Berlanga, et al.                             H.B. No. 3171
       74R8646 JJT-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the exemption of certain chemical dependency programs
    1-3  from licensure requirements.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 464.003, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 464.003.  EXEMPTIONS.  This subchapter does not apply
    1-8  to:
    1-9              (1)  a facility maintained or operated by the federal
   1-10  government;
   1-11              (2)  a facility directly operated by the state;
   1-12              (3)  a facility licensed by the Texas Department of
   1-13  Mental Health and Mental Retardation;
   1-14              (4)  an educational program for intoxicated drivers;
   1-15              (5)  the individual office of a private, licensed
   1-16  health care practitioner who personally renders private individual
   1-17  or group services within the scope of the practitioner's license
   1-18  and in the practitioner's office; <or>
   1-19              (6)  an individual who personally provides counseling
   1-20  or support services to a chemically dependent person but does not
   1-21  offer or purport to offer a chemical dependency treatment program;
   1-22  or
   1-23              (7)  a 12-step or similar self-help chemical dependency
   1-24  recovery program:
    2-1                    (A)  that does not offer or purport to offer a
    2-2  chemical dependency treatment program;
    2-3                    (B)  that does not charge program participants;
    2-4  and
    2-5                    (C)  in which program participants may maintain
    2-6  anonymity.
    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.