By West                                                S.B. No. 865
       74R5751 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to nurse aides in certain nursing facilities funded
    1-3  through the state 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 32.0212 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 32.0212.  NURSE AIDES IN NURSING FACILITIES.  (a)  The
    1-8  department shall include in a contract for the delivery of medical
    1-9  assistance by a nursing facility provisions requiring that the
   1-10  facility maintain a sufficient ratio of nurse aides to residents to
   1-11  meet the needs of the residents.
   1-12        (b)  At minimum, the contract provision must require that the
   1-13  facility maintain:
   1-14              (1)  at least one nurse aide for each eight residents
   1-15  during a morning shift;
   1-16              (2)  at least one nurse aide for each 10 residents
   1-17  during an afternoon shift; and
   1-18              (3)  at least one nurse aide for each 14 residents
   1-19  during a night shift.
   1-20        (c)  A nurse aide designated as a member of the nursing staff
   1-21  during a shift may not perform food preparation, housekeeping,
   1-22  laundry, maintenance, or other basic services unrelated to direct
   1-23  care, except as approved by the facility's nursing director in
   1-24  response to a natural disaster or other emergency.
    2-1        (d)  In this section, "nurse aide" means a certified nurse
    2-2  aide or a person enrolled in an approved nurse aide training
    2-3  course.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  If, before implementing Section 32.0212, Human
    2-5  Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Texas Department of Human
    2-6  Services determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
    2-7  agency is necessary for implementation, the department shall
    2-8  request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that
    2-9  section until the waiver or authorization is granted.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.