78R4930 KLA-D

By:  Naishtat                                                     H.B. No. 1786


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a pilot program for transferring money appropriated to provide institutional care for certain persons to provide community-based services to those persons. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 531, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 531.065 to read as follows: Sec. 531.065. PILOT PROGRAM FOR FUNDING COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES. (a) In this section, "institution" means: (1) an ICF-MR, as defined by Section 531.002, Health and Safety Code; or (2) an institution for the mentally retarded licensed by the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. (b) The commission shall direct the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to develop and implement in at least three sites a pilot program to: (1) quantify the amount of money appropriated by the legislature that would have been spent during the remainder of a state fiscal biennium to care for a person who lives in an institution located in a pilot program site but who is leaving that institution before the end of the biennium to live in the community with the assistance of community-based services; and (2) notwithstanding any other state law and to the maximum extent allowed by federal law, transfer at the time the person leaves the institution the amount quantified under Subdivision (1) between health and human services agencies as necessary to comply with this section. (c) The Department of Protective and Regulatory Services and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation shall ensure that the amount transferred under this section is redirected by the health and human services agencies to one or more community-based programs to provide community-based services to the person after the person leaves the institution. (d) Not later than December 1, 2004, the commission, the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation shall submit a joint report concerning the effectiveness of the pilot program to the governor and the committees of each house of the legislature that have primary oversight jurisdiction over health and human services agencies. The report must include a recommendation regarding the feasibility of expanding the pilot program statewide. SECTION 2. Not later than December 1, 2003, the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation shall implement the pilot program under Section 531.065, Government Code, as added by this Act. SECTION 3. If before implementing any provision of this Act a state agency determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the agency affected by the provision shall request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.