By Ellis                                         S.B. No. 788

      75R2453 SKB-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the filing of annual reports of community benefits

 1-3     plans by nonprofit hospitals.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 311.046(b), Health and Safety Code, is

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (b)  A nonprofit hospital shall file the annual report of the

 1-8     community benefits plan with the Bureau of State Health Data and

 1-9     Policy Analysis at the department.  The report shall be filed no

1-10     later than April 30 of each year [120 days after the end of the

1-11     hospital's fiscal year; provided, however, that the first report

1-12     shall be filed no later than 120 days after the end of the

1-13     hospital's fiscal year ending during 1994].

1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-15     applies only to reports filed for fiscal years ending on or after

1-16     January 1, 1998.  The filing date of a report for a fiscal year

1-17     ending before January 1, 1998, is governed by the law as it existed

1-18     immediately before September 1, 1997, and that law is continued in

1-19     effect for that purpose.

1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.