By Hill                                                H.B. No. 484
         76R874 MCK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to requiring owners of nursing homes to give notice before
 1-3     selling the facility.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 242, Health and Safety
 1-6     Code, is amended by adding Section 242.017 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 242.017.  NOTICE FOR SALE OF INSTITUTION.  (a) The owner
 1-8     of an institution shall give written notice of the sale of the
 1-9     institution to:
1-10                 (1)  each resident of the institution;
1-11                 (2)  the guardian, agent, or next of kin of each
1-12     resident;
1-13                 (3)  each member of the staff of the institution; and
1-14                 (4)  the department.
1-15           (b)  The person shall send the notice by certified mail not
1-16     later than the 30th day before the sale of the institution becomes
1-17     final.
1-18           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-19     applies only to the sale of an institution that occurs on or after
1-20     that date.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.