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79R5117 KLA-D

By:  Zaffirini                                                    S.B. No. 627



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to a pilot program for the transfer of money appropriated 
for certain institutional care for children to provide 
community-based services to those children.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 161, Human Resources Code, 
is amended by adding Section 161.075 to read as follows:
	Sec. 161.075.  PILOT PROGRAM FOR TRANSFER OF MONEY FOR 
COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN.  (a)  In this 
section:
		(1)  "Child" has the meaning assigned by Section 
531.151, Government Code.
		(2)  "Health and human services agency" has the meaning 
assigned by Section 531.001, Government Code.
		(3)  "ICF-MR" has the meaning assigned by Section 
531.002, Health and Safety Code.
	(b)  The department shall establish a pilot program under 
which:      
		(1)  the department:                                                   
			(A)  quantifies the amount of money appropriated 
to the department by the legislature that would have been spent 
during the remainder of a state fiscal biennium to care for a child 
who lives in any ICF-MR facility but who is leaving that facility 
before the end of the biennium to live in the community; and
			(B)  notifies the commission that the child will 
be leaving the facility to live in the community; and
		(2)  the commission, notwithstanding any other state 
law and to the maximum extent allowed by federal law, directs, as 
appropriate:
			(A)  the executive commissioner, at the time the 
child leaves the facility, to transfer the amount quantified under 
Subdivision (1)(A) among the health and human services agencies and 
the commission as necessary to comply with this section, subject to 
Subsection (d); or
			(B)  the department, at the time the child leaves 
the facility, to transfer the amount quantified under Subdivision 
(1)(A) within the department's budget as necessary to comply with 
this section, subject to Subsection (d).
	(c)  The commission shall ensure that the amount transferred 
under this section is redirected by the commission or the 
department, as applicable, to one or more community-based programs 
to provide community-based services to the child after the child 
leaves the facility.
	(d)  During each state fiscal year, the department may notify 
the commission under Subsection (b)(1)(B) with respect to at least 
50 children, and the commission shall direct that money be 
transferred under Subsection (b)(2) with respect to those children.
	(e)  The commission may decertify an appropriate Medicaid 
bed for each child who leaves an ICF-MR facility and for whom money 
is transferred under Subsection (b)(2).
	(f)  Not later than December 1, 2006, the commission and the 
department shall jointly prepare and submit a 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.  The report 
must:
		(1)  indicate the number of children who left an ICF-MR 
facility to receive community-based services under the pilot 
program and the locations of the ICF-MR facilities in which those 
children previously resided;
		(2)  identify the waiver programs that provided the 
community-based services to children described by Subdivision (1);  
and
		(3)  include:                                                          
			(A)  an evaluation of any systemic barriers that 
affected implementation of the pilot program;
			(B)  recommendations on possible incentives or 
assistance that would encourage providers of ICF-MR services to 
convert those services to community-based services; and
			(C)  a recommendation regarding the feasibility 
of expanding the pilot program statewide.
	(g)  This section expires September 1, 2007.                            
	SECTION 2.  Not later than December 1, 2005, the Department 
of Aging and Disability Services shall implement the pilot program 
under Section 161.075, Human Resources 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.