1-1     By:  Haggerty (Senate Sponsor - Carona)                H.B. No. 897
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 28, 1999;
 1-3     April 29, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Human
 1-4     Services; May 12, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to medical assistance payments for ambulance services.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 32.043, Human Resources Code, as added by
1-11     Chapter 1153, Acts of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997,
1-12     is amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
1-13           (c)  For an ambulance service provided to an individual who
1-14     is eligible under the medical assistance program and Medicare, the
1-15     medical assistance program shall pay the Medicare deductibles and
1-16     coinsurance.
1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-18     applies only to a medical assistance payment for ambulance services
1-19     that are provided on or after the effective date of this Act.
1-20           SECTION 3.  If before implementing Section 32.043(c), Human
1-21     Resources Code, as added by this Act, the Health and Human Services
1-22     Commission determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
1-23     agency is necessary for implementation, the commission shall
1-24     request the waiver or authorization and may authorize a delay in
1-25     implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is
1-26     granted.
1-27           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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