By:  Ellis, Zaffirini                                  S.B. No. 788

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the filing of annual reports of community benefits

 1-2     plans by nonprofit hospitals.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 311.046, Health and

 1-5     Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (b)  A nonprofit hospital shall file the annual report of the

 1-7     community benefits plan with the Bureau of State Health Data and

 1-8     Policy Analysis at the department.  The report shall be filed no

 1-9     later than April 30 of each year [120 days after the end of the

1-10     hospital's fiscal year; provided, however, that the first report

1-11     shall be filed no later than 120 days after the end of the

1-12     hospital's fiscal year ending during 1994].

1-13           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-14     applies only to reports filed for fiscal years ending on or after

1-15     January 1, 1998.  The filing date of a report for a fiscal year

1-16     ending before January 1, 1998, is governed by the law as it existed

1-17     immediately before September 1, 1997, and that law is continued in

1-18     effect for that purpose.

1-19           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.