79R3708 KLA-D


By:  Naishtat                                                     H.B. No. 1867



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the transfer of money appropriated to provide care for 
certain persons in nursing facilities 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 531.082 to read as follows:
	Sec. 531.082.  TRANSFER OF MONEY FOR COMMUNITY-BASED 
SERVICES.  (a)  The commission shall 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 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.
	(b)  Notwithstanding any other state law and to the maximum 
extent allowed by federal law, the executive commissioner shall 
direct, as appropriate:
		(1)  the comptroller, at the time the person described 
by Subsection (a) leaves the nursing facility, to transfer the 
amount quantified under that subsection among the health and human 
services agencies and the commission as necessary to comply with 
this section; or
		(2)  the commission or a health and human services 
agency, at the time the person described by Subsection (a) leaves 
the nursing facility, to transfer the amount quantified under that 
subsection within the agency's budget as necessary to comply with 
this section.
	(c)  The commission shall ensure that the amount transferred 
under this section is redirected by the commission or health and 
human services agency, as applicable, to one or more 
community-based programs to provide community-based services to 
the person after the person leaves the nursing facility.
	SECTION 2.  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 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.