1-1     By:  Armbrister                                        S.B. No. 644

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 18, 1997; February 20, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Health and Human

 1-4     Services; March 24, 1997, reported adversely, with favorable

 1-5     Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 11, Nays 0;

 1-6     March 24, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 644                   By:  Nelson

 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-9                                   AN ACT

1-10     relating to the regulation of certain air ambulance companies.

1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 773.045, Health and Safety Code, is

1-13     amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (c) and

1-14     (d) to read as follows:

1-15           (b)  A rotor or fixed-wing aircraft and staff based in this

1-16     state and used to transport a patient by stretcher [and that

1-17     advertises as an air ambulance service] is required to be licensed

1-18     by the department.

1-19           (c)  An air ambulance company based in another state that

1-20     transports patients from a point in this state is required to be

1-21     licensed by the department as an emergency medical services

1-22     provider.  The department shall issue a license to an air ambulance

1-23     company under this subsection if the company applies as required by

1-24     this chapter and has met the department's qualifications for safely

1-25     transporting patients.  An air ambulance company accredited by the

1-26     Committee on Air Ambulance Medical Services is rebuttably presumed

1-27     to have met the department's qualifications.

1-28           (d)  An air ambulance company licensed under Subsection (c)

1-29     must include information regarding the physical location of the

1-30     company's base operations in any advertising by the company in this

1-31     state.

1-32           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-33           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-34     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-35     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-36     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-37     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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