1-1     By:  Kuempel (Senate Sponsor - Wentworth)             H.B. No. 2866
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 1999;
 1-3     April 20, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Human
 1-4     Services; May 6, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 6, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to assistance funds for mandatory health care services
 1-9     provided in certain counties.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 61.037(e), Health and Safety Code, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           (e)  A county that provides mandatory health care services to
1-14     its eligible residents through a hospital established by a board of
1-15     managers jointly appointed by a county and a municipality under
1-16     Section 265.011 is eligible for state assistance if:
1-17                 (1)  the county spends in a state fiscal year at least
1-18     10 percent of the county general revenue levy for the year to
1-19     provide mandatory health care services to its eligible county
1-20     residents who qualify for assistance under Section 61.052 [61.006];
1-21     and
1-22                 (2)  the county complies with the requirements of this
1-23     subchapter.
1-24           SECTION 2.  Section 61.038(a), Health and Safety Code, is
1-25     amended to read as follows:
1-26           (a)  If the department determines that a county is eligible
1-27     for assistance, the department shall distribute funds appropriated
1-28     to the department from the indigent health care assistance fund or
1-29     any other available fund to the county to assist the county in
1-30     providing mandatory health care services to its eligible county
1-31     residents who qualify for assistance as described by Section 61.037
1-32     [under Section 61.006].
1-33           SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-34     to state assistance under Chapter 61, Health and Safety Code, as
1-35     amended by this Act, for mandatory health care services that are
1-36     delivered on or after January 1, 2000.  State assistance for
1-37     mandatory health care services that are delivered before January 1,
1-38     2000, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before that
1-39     date, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-40           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-41     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-42     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-43     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-44     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-45     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-46     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-47                                  * * * * *