By:  Armbrister                                        S.B. No. 644

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

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

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 773.045, Health and Safety Code, is

 1-4     amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (c) and

 1-5     (d) to read as follows:

 1-6           (b)  A rotor or fixed-wing aircraft and staff based in this

 1-7     state and used to transport a patient by stretcher [and that

 1-8     advertises as an air ambulance service] is required to be licensed

 1-9     by the department.

1-10           (c)  An air ambulance company based in another state that

1-11     transports patients from a point in this state is required to be

1-12     licensed by the department as an emergency medical services

1-13     provider.  The department shall issue a license to an air ambulance

1-14     company under this subsection if the company applies as required by

1-15     this chapter and has met the department's qualifications for safely

1-16     transporting patients.  An air ambulance company accredited by the

1-17     Committee on Air Ambulance Medical Services is rebuttably presumed

1-18     to have met the department's qualifications.

1-19           (d)  An air ambulance company licensed under Subsection (c)

1-20     must include information regarding the physical location of the

1-21     company's base operations in any advertising by the company in this

1-22     state.

1-23           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

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

 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.