By Berlanga, Maxey                                    H.B. No. 2344

         75R3674 JMM-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the regulation of certain air ambulance companies.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 773.045, Health and Safety Code, is

 1-5     amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (c) and

 1-6     (d) to read as follows:

 1-7           (b)  A rotor or fixed-wing aircraft and staff based in this

 1-8     state and used to transport a patient by stretcher [and that

 1-9     advertises as an air ambulance service] is required to be licensed

1-10     by the department.

1-11           (c)  An air ambulance company based in another state that

1-12     transports patients on a flight that originates in this state is

1-13     required to be licensed by the department as an emergency medical

1-14     services provider.  The department shall issue a license to an air

1-15     ambulance company under this subsection if the company applies as

1-16     required by this chapter and has met the department's

1-17     qualifications for safely transporting patients.  An air ambulance

1-18     company accredited by the Committee on Air Ambulance Medical

1-19     Services is rebuttably presumed to have met the department's

1-20     qualifications.

1-21           (d)  An air ambulance company licensed under Subsection (c)

1-22     must include information regarding the physical location of the

1-23     company's base operations in any advertising by the company in this

1-24     state.

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

 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

 2-7                          COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1

 2-8           Amend H.B. No. 2344 on page 1, line 24, following the period,

 2-9     by inserting:

2-10     "This subsection does not prohibit an air ambulance company with

2-11     multiple locations from listing those locations in advertising,

2-12     provided that the air ambulance company meets all the provisions of

2-13     this Act."

2-14                                                                   Maxey