By Luna                                                S.B. No. 612
       74R4901 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to certain nursing home services funded through the state
    1-3  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 UNDERSERVED MINORITY
    1-8  COMMUNITIES.  The department may waive a restriction imposed by
    1-9  state law on the authority to contract under the state Medicaid
   1-10  program for nursing home beds based on the percentage of beds that
   1-11  are occupied in a geographical area if the department finds, in
   1-12  accordance with board rule, that waiving the restriction would
   1-13  serve an underserved minority community.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  If, before implementing Section 32.0245, Human
   1-15  Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Texas Department of Human
   1-16  Services determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
   1-17  agency is necessary for implementation, the department shall
   1-18  request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that
   1-19  section until the waiver or authorization is granted.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-2  passage, and it is so enacted.