1-1     By:  Madla                                             S.B. No. 983
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 8, 1999; March 9, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Human Services;
 1-4     April 29, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; April 29, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 983                   By:  Harris
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to a branch office of a home health or personal assistance
1-11     services agency.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  After consulting with the Texas Department of
1-14     Health, the Texas Department of Human Services, and providers and
1-15     consumers of home health and personal assistance services, the
1-16     commissioner of health and human services shall contact the federal
1-17     Health Care Financing Administration to request that the Health
1-18     Care Financing Administration adopt rules that:
1-19                 (1)  allow a home and community support services agency
1-20     to use modern methods of communication in the supervision of the
1-21     agency's branch offices, including the telephone, fax machines,
1-22     pagers, and electronic mail; and
1-23                 (2)  eliminate the driving distance requirements for a
1-24     branch office of a home and community support services agency or
1-25     allow the state to set its own driving distance requirements.
1-26           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-27           SECTION 3.  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.
1-32                                  * * * * *