HBA-MSH S.B. 1051 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 1051 By: Shapleigh Public Health 5/17/2001 Committee Report (Amended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE A promotora is a person who with or without compensation provides a liaison between health care providers and patients through activities that include assisting in case conferences, providing patient education, making referrals to health and social services, conducting needs assessments, distributing surveys to identify barriers to health care delivery, making home visits, and providing language services. Promotoras and community health workers play a key role in minimizing many of the health and social services barriers encountered by individuals living in economically distressed areas of the state. Although the Texas Department of Health (TDH) currently operates a promotora training and certification program, participation is on a voluntary basis. Senate Bill 1051 requires promotoras and community health workers who receive compensation for their services to undergo training and certification by TDH. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS Senate Bill 1051 amends the Health and Safety Code to include community health workers in provisions relating to the training and regulation of promotoras. In establishing a program to train promotoras or community health workers, the bill requires TDH to consider the report and any findings of and implement any applicable recommendations of the Promotora Program Development Committee, and removes the requirement that TDH use as a resource the uniform curriculum for training and educating promotoras developed by the Health Education Training Centers Alliance of Texas. The bill provides that participation in a training and education program established under this section is voluntary for a promotora or community health worker who provides services without receiving any compensation and mandatory for a promotora or community health worker who provides services for compensation. In adopting the minimum standards and guidelines for a certification program for promotoras and community health workers, the bill requires the Texas Board of Health to consider the report and any findings of and adopt any applicable recommendations of the Promotora Program Development Committee. The bill prohibits receipt of a certificate issued under these provisions from being a requirement for a person to act as a promotora or community health worker without receiving any compensation and specifies that receipt of certificate is a requirement for a person to act as a promotora or community health worker for compensation. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS Committee Amendment No. 1 authorizes the Texas Board of Health to adopt rules to exempt from mandatory training a promotora or community health worker who has served for three or more years or who has 1,000 or more hours of experience.