By:  Luna, Madla                                       S.B. No. 612
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to certain nursing home services funded through the state
    1-2  Medicaid program.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 32, Human Resources Code,
    1-5  is amended by adding Section 32.0245 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 32.0245.  NURSING HOME BEDS FOR UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES.
    1-7  The department may waive a restriction imposed by state law on the
    1-8  authority to contract under the state Medicaid program for nursing
    1-9  home beds based on the percentage of beds that are occupied in a
   1-10  geographical area if the department finds, in accordance with board
   1-11  rule, that waiving the restriction would serve an underserved
   1-12  community.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  If, before implementing Section 32.0245, Human
   1-14  Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Texas Department of Human
   1-15  Services determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
   1-16  agency is necessary for implementation, the department shall
   1-17  request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that
   1-18  section until the waiver or authorization is granted.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-1  passage, and it is so enacted.