1-1           By:  Ellis, Zaffirini                            S.B. No. 788

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 26, 1997; March 3, 1997, read

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

 1-4     March 13, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 11,

 1-5     Nays 0; March 13, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the filing of annual reports of community benefits

 1-9     plans by nonprofit hospitals.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 311.046, Health and

1-12     Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:

1-13           (b)  A nonprofit hospital shall file the annual report of the

1-14     community benefits plan with the Bureau of State Health Data and

1-15     Policy Analysis at the department.  The report shall be filed no

1-16     later than April 30 of each year [120 days after the end of the

1-17     hospital's fiscal year; provided, however, that the first report

1-18     shall be filed no later than 120 days after the end of the

1-19     hospital's fiscal year ending during 1994].

1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-21     applies only to reports filed for fiscal years ending on or after

1-22     January 1, 1998.  The filing date of a report for a fiscal year

1-23     ending before January 1, 1998, is governed by the law as it existed

1-24     immediately before September 1, 1997, and that law is continued in

1-25     effect for that purpose.

1-26           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-27     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-28     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-29     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-30     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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