By:  Moncrief                                 S.B. No. 751

         97S0529/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to restrictions on providing transportation for certain

 1-2     health care purposes.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 161.091, Health and Safety Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Subsections (g) and (h) to read as follows:

 1-6           (g)  This section shall not be construed to prohibit

 1-7     providing transportation for health care services to adult patients

 1-8     as a community service if the transportation service is valued at

 1-9     not more than $20 per one-way trip, is not provided by a mental

1-10     health provider, and does not involve transportation to a mental

1-11     health facility.

1-12           (h)  For the purpose of Subsection (g), "health care

1-13     services" means:

1-14                 (1)  services routinely provided in a hospital-based

1-15     outpatient clinic; or

1-16                 (2)  health-related community education services.

1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.