| TO: | Honorable Carlos Uresti, Chair, House Committee on Human Services |
| FROM: | John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1320 by Naishtat (Relating to the transfer of money appropriated to provide care for certain persons in nursing facilities to provide community-based services to those persons.), As Introduced |
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would require the Department of Human Services (DHS) to 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 living in a nursing facility but who is leaving that facility before the end of the biennium to live in the community with the assistance of community based services. The bill would require DHS, at the time the person leaves the nursing facility, to transfer the amount quantified within the department's budget as necessary to comply with this section. The bill would also require DHS to ensure that the amount transferred is redirected to one or more community based programs to provide community based services to the person after the person leaves the nursing facility.
DHS indicates that implementation of the bill could potentially decrease the number of clients receiving institutional care and increase the number of clients receiving services from community based programs. The impact, as identified by the agency, of changing location of service should be "cost neutral" as long as the cost of services received in the community are not higher than the cost of services received from an institution.
It is assumed that expenditures for all services could increase as institutional care is an entitlement and services must be provided to all eligible clients.
| Source Agencies: | 324 Department Of Human Services
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| LBB Staff: | JK, EB, KF, ML
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