By Berlanga 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.