By:  Cain                                              S.B. No. 687
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the personal needs allowance for certain Medicaid
    1-2  recipients who are residents of long-term care facilities.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 32.024, Human Resources Code, is amended
    1-5  by adding Subsection (t) to read as follows:
    1-6        (t)  The department shall set a personal needs allowance of
    1-7  not less than $40 a month for a resident of a convalescent or
    1-8  nursing home or related institution licensed under Chapter 242,
    1-9  Health and Safety Code, personal care facility, ICF-MR facility, or
   1-10  other similar long-term care facility who receives medical
   1-11  assistance.  The department may send the personal needs allowance
   1-12  directly to a resident who receives supplemental security income
   1-13  (SSI) benefits under Title XVI of the federal Social Security Act
   1-14  (42 U.S.C. Section 1381 et seq.).  This subsection does not apply
   1-15  to a resident who is participating in a medical assistance waiver
   1-16  program administered by the department.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-18  applies only to a personal needs allowance paid on or after that
   1-19  date.
   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
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.