By Gray                                               H.B. No. 2236
         76R7860 CLG-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to contracts for Medicaid managed care.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 533.004(a), Government Code, is amended
 1-5     to read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  In providing health care services through Medicaid
 1-7     managed care to recipients in a health care service region, the
 1-8     commission shall contract with a [at least one] managed care
 1-9     organization [in that region] that:
1-10                 (1)  is licensed under the Texas Health Maintenance
1-11     Organization Act (Chapter 20A, Vernon's Texas Insurance Code) to
1-12     provide health care  in that region and that is:
1-13                       (A) [(1)]  wholly owned and operated by a
1-14     hospital district in that region;
1-15                       (B) [(2)]  created by a nonprofit corporation
1-16     that:
1-17                             (i) [(A)]  has a contract, agreement, or
1-18     other arrangement with a hospital district in that region or with a
1-19     municipality in that  region that owns a hospital licensed under
1-20     Chapter 241, Health and Safety Code, and has an obligation to
1-21     provide health care to indigent patients; and
1-22                             (ii) [(B)]  under the contract, agreement,
1-23     or other arrangement, assumes the obligation to provide health care
1-24     to indigent  patients and leases, manages, or operates a hospital
 2-1     facility owned by the hospital district or municipality; or
 2-2                       (C) [(3)]  created by a nonprofit corporation
 2-3     that has a contract, agreement, or other arrangement with a
 2-4     hospital district in that region under which the nonprofit
 2-5     corporation acts as an agent of the district and assumes the
 2-6     district's obligation to arrange for services under the Medicaid
 2-7     expansion for children as authorized by Chapter 444, Acts of the
 2-8     74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995; or
 2-9                 (2)  holds a certificate of authority under Article
2-10     21.52F, Insurance Code, and that is:
2-11                       (A)  certified under Section 5.01(a), Medical
2-12     Practice Act (Article 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes); and
2-13                       (B)  created by The University of Texas Medical
2-14     Branch at Galveston.
2-15           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-21     passage, and it is so enacted.