By:  Cain                                             S.B. No. 1208
         99S0636/1                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the licensing of outpatient hospital facilities.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 241.023, Health and Safety Code, is
 1-4     amended to read as follows:
 1-5           Sec. 241.023.  ISSUANCE OF LICENSE.  (a)  On receiving a
 1-6     license application and the license fee, the department shall issue
 1-7     a license if it finds that the applicant and the hospital comply
 1-8     with this chapter and the rules or standards adopted under this
 1-9     chapter.
1-10           (b)  A license may be renewed annually after payment of the
1-11     required fee.
1-12           (c)  The department may issue a license only for the premises
1-13     and person or governmental unit named in the application.
1-14           (d)  Subject to the provisions of Subsection (e), a license
1-15     issued under this section shall include each outpatient facility
1-16     which is located apart from the hospital and for which the hospital
1-17     has submitted to the department:
1-18                 (1)  a copy of a fire safety survey that is dated no
1-19     earlier than one year prior to the submission date indicating
1-20     approval by the local fire authority in whose jurisdiction the
1-21     outpatient facility is located, provided that an outpatient
1-22     facility located outside the jurisdiction of a local fire authority
1-23     shall provide a copy of a fire safety survey indicating approval
1-24     from the nearest fire authority; or
 2-1                 (2)  if the hospital is accredited by the Joint
 2-2     Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or the
 2-3     American Osteopathic Association, a copy of documentation from the
 2-4     accrediting body showing that the outpatient facility is included
 2-5     within the hospital's accreditation.
 2-6           (e)  Subsection (d) applies only if the United States
 2-7     Department of Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing
 2-8     Administration, Office of Inspector General, adopts interim or
 2-9     final rules requiring state licensure of outpatient facilities as a
2-10     condition of a designation as a Medicare provider-based entity.
2-11           (f)  A license may not be transferred or assigned without the
2-12     written approval of the department.
2-13           (g) [(e)]  A license shall be posted in a conspicuous place
2-14     on the licensed premises.
2-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.