TO: | Honorable Ray Allen, Chair, House Committee on County Affairs |
FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
IN RE: | HB2618 by Eiland (Relating to county expenditures for certain health care services.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would allow counties to count funding given to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), regardless of whether the county chose FQHC services as an optional service under Section 61.0285 of the Health and Safety Code, toward meeting the 8 percent spending threshold a county must surpass to receive state assistance funding under Chapter 61, Health and Safety Code. Currently, a county must choose FQHCs as an optional service to count these expenditures toward the 8 percent threshold.
The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) indicates that there would be no fiscal impact to the state. However, there could be the potential for more counties to qualify for and seek assistance under this program. In fiscal year 2004, only 7 out of the 20 counties receiving state assistance under this program chose FQHCs as an optional service. Under this arrangement, more counties may reach the 8 percent threshold to qualify for state assistance and they may do so more quickly; however, once the state assistance fund has been depleted, there would be no further state assistance available to the counties. While the state would not be required to provide additional assistance to the counties, if two more counties qualified for state assistance, for example, the potential cost could be $428,420 per year (average cost of assistance per county was $214,210 in 2004).
Source Agencies: | 537 Department of State Health Services
|
LBB Staff: | JOB, KF, LW, PP, DLBa
|