79R7693 KLA-D
By: Naishtat H.B. No. 2449
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 531.085 to read as follows:
Sec. 531.085. PILOT PROGRAM FOR FUNDING COMMUNITY-BASED
SERVICES. (a) In this section, "ICF-MR" has the meaning assigned
by Section 531.002, Health and Safety Code.
(b) The commission shall direct the Department of Aging and
Disability Services to develop and implement 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 ICF-MR
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 provided through a medical assistance
waiver program; and
(2) notwithstanding any other state law and to the
maximum extent allowed by federal law, transfer at the time the
person leaves the facility the amount quantified under Subdivision
(1) within the department's budget or among the commission and the
health and human services agencies as necessary to comply with this
section.
(c) The amount transferred under this section must be
redirected by the commission or a health and human services agency
to one or more community-based programs to provide community-based
services to the person through a medical assistance waiver program
after the person leaves the ICF-MR facility.
(d) The commission and the Department of Aging and
Disability Services shall jointly determine criteria for selecting
the ICF-MR facilities in which the department will operate the
pilot program under this section. The criteria may relate to any
factor the commission and department consider relevant, including:
(1) the size of an ICF-MR facility;
(2) the history of the quality of care provided by an
ICF-MR facility;
(3) a specific geographic area; or
(4) whether an ICF-MR provider is willing to convert
the services provided from institutional services to
community-based medical assistance waiver program services.
(e) During each state fiscal year, the Department of Aging
and Disability Services shall transfer money under Subsection
(b)(2) with respect to at least five percent, but not more than 10
percent, of the total number of persons residing in an ICF-MR
facility included in the pilot program on the first day of that
fiscal year.
(f) The executive commissioner may adopt rules under which
the commission may decertify an appropriate Medicaid bed for each
person who leaves an ICF-MR facility and for whom money is
transferred under Subsection (b)(2).
(g) Not later than December 1, 2006, the commission and the
Department of Aging and Disability Services 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, 2005, the Department
of Aging and Disability Services shall implement the pilot program
under Section 531.085, 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, 2005.