LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                          Austin, Texas

                           FISCAL NOTE
                       74th Regular Session

                          March 31, 1995



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










FROM: John Keel, Director

In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on Senate Bill No.
979 (Relating to programs to increase the number of primary care
physicians and allied health personnel in medically underserved
areas of this state) 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.

The bill 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:

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

*  expanding the number of eligible family residency pilot
programs from three to five;

*  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 residents in an approved family    




practice residency training program to the eligibility list for
the Physician Education Loan Repayment Program;

 *  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
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:   Higher Education Coordinating Board
          LBB Staff: JK, DB, WRR