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)
1-5 through (f) 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 holds
1-8 itself out as an air ambulance service [and that advertises as an
1-9 air ambulance service] is required to be licensed by the
1-10 department.
1-11 (c) An air ambulance company based in another state that
1-12 transports patients from a point in this state is required to be
1-13 licensed by the department as an emergency medical services
1-14 provider. The department shall issue a license to an air ambulance
1-15 company under this subsection if the company applies as required by
1-16 this chapter and has met the department's qualifications for safely
1-17 transporting patients. An air ambulance company accredited by the
1-18 Committee on Air Ambulance Medical Services is rebuttably presumed
1-19 to have met the department's qualifications.
1-20 (d) An air ambulance company licensed under Subsection (c)
1-21 must include information regarding the physical location of the
1-22 company's base operations in any advertising by the company in this
1-23 state. This subsection does not prohibit an air ambulance company
2-1 with multiple locations from listing those locations in
2-2 advertising, provided that the air ambulance company meets all the
2-3 provisions of this chapter.
2-4 (e) An air ambulance company that is not located in this
2-5 state and that advertises within this state must have at least one
2-6 physical location in this state.
2-7 (f) This section does not require an air transportation
2-8 provider to be licensed if, in addition to the company's normal air
2-9 transportation service, the air transportation company provides
2-10 only voluntary, mercy-flight transportation at the company's own
2-11 expense.
2-12 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-13 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-14 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-15 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-16 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-17 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 644 passed the Senate on
April 3, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that
the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 23, 1997, by a
viva-voce vote.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 644 passed the House, with
amendment, on May 10, 1997, by a non-record vote.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
_______________________________
Date
_______________________________
Governor