LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                          Austin, Texas

                           FISCAL NOTE
                       74th Regular Session

                          March 29, 1995



 TO:     Honorable Bill Ratliff, Chair          IN RE:  Senate Bill No. 979
         Committee on Education                         By: Sibley
         Senate
         Austin, Texas







FROM: John Keel, Director

In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on Senate Bill No.
979 (Relating to relief programs, family practice residency
training pilot programs, the repayment of certain physician
education loans, the medical school tuition set aside for certain
loan payments, and increasing the number of primary care
physicians in medically underserved areas of this state through
the creation of the Medically Underserved Community-State
Matching Incentive Program.) this office has determined the
following:

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal
basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions
of the bill.

H.B. 979 would add a new program and make changes to existing
programs to increase the availability of health care in medically
underserved areas of the state.  Major provisions of the bill
include:

*  expanding the responsibilities of the Center for Rural Health
Initiatives to include developing relief service programs for
practice coverage;

*  transferring oversight of the family residency pilot programs
from the Department of Health to the Higher Education
Coordinating Board;

*  establishing a goal that no more than 20 percent of physicians
receiving repayment assistance should be employed by certain    




state agencies;
 
*  adding clinical faculty and second or third year residents in
an approved family practice residency training program to the
eligibility list for the Physician Education Loan Repayment
Program; and

*  developing a medically underserved community-state matching
incentive program administered by the Department of Health which
would provide a maximum of $25,000 in matching state funds to no
more than 10 eligible communities who sponsor a primary care
physician.











The probable fiscal implication of implementing the provisions of
the bill during each of the first  five years following passage
is estimated as follows:



            Fiscal  Probable Cost Out 
             Year      of  General    
                     Revenue Fund 001 
                                      
          1996                $250,000
          1997                 250,000
                                      
          1998                 250,000
                                      
          1999                 250,000
          2000                 250,000
                                      
                                      
                                      
       Similar annual fiscal implications would continue as long as the
provisions of the bill are in effect.

No fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.


Source:   Department of Health, Higher Education Coordinating
Board
          LBB Staff: JK, DB, DF