By West                                                S.B. No. 664
         76R2077 KLA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the personal needs allowance for certain Medicaid
 1-3     recipients who are residents of long-term care facilities.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 32.024, Human Resources Code, is amended
 1-6     by adding Subsection (v) to read as follows:
 1-7           (v)  The department shall set a personal needs allowance of
 1-8     not less than $40 a month for a resident of a convalescent or
 1-9     nursing home or related institution licensed under Chapter 242,
1-10     Health and Safety Code, personal care facility, ICF-MR facility, or
1-11     other similar long-term care facility who receives medical
1-12     assistance.  The department may send the personal needs allowance
1-13     directly to a resident who receives Supplemental Security Income
1-14     (SSI) (42 U.S.C. Section 1381 et seq.).  This subsection does not
1-15     apply to a resident who is participating in a medical assistance
1-16     waiver program administered by the department.
1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-18     applies only to a personal needs allowance paid on or after that
1-19     date.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.