By Zaffirini                                            S.B. No. 56

      75R933 MLR-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to eligibility for state matching funds assistance under

 1-3     the indigent health care law.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 61.036, Health and Safety Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:

 1-7           (d)  Regardless of eligibility standards set by the

 1-8     department under Subchapter A, if a county executes an interagency

 1-9     agreement with the agency that administers the state's Medicaid

1-10     program, the  county may report Medicaid eligible expenditures as a

1-11     credit toward that entity's eligibility for state matching funds

1-12     assistance.  The department by rule shall provide for

1-13     implementation of this subsection.

1-14           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-15           (b)  Section 61.036(d), Health and Safety Code, as added by

1-16     this Act, applies to Medicaid eligible expenditures incurred by a

1-17     county on or after the effective date of this Act.  Medicaid

1-18     eligible expenditures incurred by a county before the effective

1-19     date of this Act are governed by the law in effect on the date the

1-20     expenditures were incurred, and the former law is continued in

1-21     effect for that purpose.

1-22           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

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