By Haggerty                                            H.B. No. 897
         76R3062 KLA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to medical assistance payments for ambulance services.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 32.043, Human Resources Code, as added by
 1-5     Chapter 1153, Acts of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997,
 1-6     is amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
 1-7           (c)  For an ambulance service provided to an individual who
 1-8     is eligible under the medical assistance program and Medicare, the
 1-9     medical assistance program shall pay the  difference between:
1-10                 (1)  the customary rate that prevails in the community
1-11     for the service provided; and
1-12                 (2)  the maximum Medicare allowable charge for the
1-13     service provided.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15     applies only to a medical assistance payment for ambulance services
1-16     that are provided on or after the effective date of this Act.
1-17           SECTION 3.  If before implementing Section 32.043(c), Human
1-18     Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Health and Human Services
1-19     Commission determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
1-20     agency is necessary for implementation, the commission shall
1-21     request the waiver or authorization and may authorize a delay in
1-22     implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is
1-23     granted.
1-24           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.