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.