By:  Moncrief                                         S.B. No. 1331
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to an assessment of the effectiveness of Medicaid managed
 1-2     care contracts.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 2, Chapter 1262, Acts of the 75th
 1-5     Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, is amended by adding
 1-6     Subsections (i) and (j) to read as follows:
 1-7           (i)  Prior to the issuance of a request for application or
 1-8     other solicitation document for any additional contracts with
 1-9     managed care organizations, the Health and Human Services
1-10     Commission shall assess the effectiveness of current managed care
1-11     contracts.  The assessment shall include an evaluation of the
1-12     impact of the managed care delivery system, including health
1-13     maintenance organizations, prepaid health plans, and primary care
1-14     case management, on the following:
1-15                 (1)  access to services by Medicaid recipients,
1-16     including those with special needs;
1-17                 (2)  quality of health care delivery;
1-18                 (3)  utilization patterns of Medicaid recipients;
1-19                 (4)  Medicaid costs; and
1-20                 (5)  public hospitals, medical schools, and other
1-21     traditional providers of indigent health care.
1-22           (j)  In conducting the assessment required by Subsection (i)
1-23     of this section, the Health and Human Services Commission shall
1-24     consult with Medicaid providers, medical professional
 2-1     organizations, managed care organizations, consumers, state
 2-2     agencies, and political subdivisions with a constitutional or
 2-3     statutory obligation to provide health care for the indigent.
 2-4           SECTION 2.  Not later than December 1, 2000, the assessment
 2-5     required under Subsection (i), Section 2, Chapter 1262, Acts of the
 2-6     75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, as added by this Act shall
 2-7     be completed and a report shall be submitted to the governor,
 2-8     lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and
 2-9     chairs of the standing committees of the senate and house of
2-10     representatives with primary jurisdiction over health services.
2-11           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect only if a specific
2-12     appropriation for the implementation of this Act is provided in
2-13     H.B. No. 1 (General Appropriations Act), Acts of the 76th
2-14     Legislature, Regular Session, 1999.  If no specific appropriation
2-15     is provided in H.B. No. 1, the General Appropriations Act, this Act
2-16     has no effect.
2-17           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-23     passage, and it is so enacted.