79R987 KEG-D

By:  Pena                                                         H.B. No. 725


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to restoring services under the Medicaid and children's health insurance programs; making an appropriation. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. For the fiscal biennium beginning September 1, 2005, the Health and Human Services Commission is appropriated from the general revenue fund the amount needed to provide services under the Medicaid and children's health insurance programs in a manner comparable to the manner in which these services were provided under the Medicaid and children's health insurance programs during the fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2003. SECTION 2. Section 62.151(b), Health and Safety Code, is amended to read as follows: (b) In developing the covered benefits, the commission shall consider the health care needs of healthy children and children with special health care needs. The child health plan must provide at least the covered benefits and eligibility described by the recommended benefits package described for a state-designed child health plan by the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Public Health "CHIP" Interim Report to the Seventy-Sixth Texas Legislature dated December 1998 and the Senate Interim Committee on Children's Health Insurance Report to the Seventy-Sixth Texas Legislature dated December 1, 1998. The child health plan must include at least the covered benefits and eligibility provided under the plan on June 1, 2003. SECTION 3. Section 32.024, Human Resources Code, is amended by amending Subsection (w) and adding Subsection (bb) to read as follows: (w) The department shall set a personal needs allowance of not less than $60 [$45] a month for a resident of a convalescent or nursing home or related institution licensed under Chapter 242, Health and Safety Code, personal care facility, ICF-MR facility, or other similar long-term care facility who receives medical assistance. The department may send the personal needs allowance directly to a resident who receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) (42 U.S.C. Section 1381 et seq.). This subsection does not apply to a resident who is participating in a medical assistance waiver program administered by the department. (bb) The department shall ensure that each of the following programs and services under the medical assistance program is provided at or above the level for which the program or service was funded during the fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2003: (1) community care programs; (2) services for pregnant women; and (3) optional services for adult recipients, including mental health services, podiatric services, eyeglasses, and hearing aids. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.