By Palmer                                             H.B. No. 2321

         75R8507 SAW-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to nursing home bed certification and decertification.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 32, Human Resources Code,

 1-5     is amended by adding Section 32.0213 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 32.0213.  NURSING HOME BED CERTIFICATION AND

 1-7     DECERTIFICATION.  (a)  The department by rule shall establish

 1-8     procedures to decertify unoccupied nursing home beds.

 1-9           (b)  Except as provided by other law, to be eligible for

1-10     certification of additional nursing home beds, a nursing facility

1-11     must maintain for those beds an annual average occupancy rate of at

1-12     least 80 percent during the three years preceding a request for

1-13     certification.

1-14           (c)  The department may waive for a newly certified Medicaid

1-15     nursing facility the occupancy rate requirement prescribed by

1-16     Subsection (b).

1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.