BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1905

By: Guillen

Human Services

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under the current waiver programs operated by the Department of Aging and Disability Services, adults with autism are not able to receive services tailored to their specific disability.  Without specializing care for adults with different disabilities, individuals who are eligible and have waited to receive waiver services cannot acquire the services necessary for them to accomplish all they can in everyday life.

C.S.H.B. 1905 creates a study, to be administered by the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission, to identify the costs and benefits of an adult autism pilot program, including other related disabilities with similar support needs. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1905 requires the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission to conduct a study to determine the costs and benefits of initiating a pilot program to provide services to adult persons with autism and other related disabilities with similar support needs.  The bill establishes that the study will determine the costs and benefits of a pilot program based on a program designed to encourage sustainable employment and community integration through specialized supports coordination, case management, vocational assessment, training, and support to increase job skills and competitive employment opportunities; develop meaningful community-based activities for persons for whom competitive employment is not a goal; promote continued individual development and avoid regression; promote self-determination and independence; coordinate services and behavioral supports across all areas of need; and allow for flexible funding and for a flexible array of services to meet individual needs.

The bill outlines the specific duties of and considerations for the executive commissioner in conducting the study. 

C.S.H.B. 1905 requires the executive commissioner, not later than September 1, 2010, to submit a report of the findings and conclusions of the study to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the presiding officers of the standing committees of the senate and house of representatives with primary jurisdiction over the provision of services to persons with disabilities. 

C.S.H.B. 1905 requires the report to include a recommendation for the structure of a pilot program; a recommendation on the choice of an appropriate agency to design and administer a pilot program; an estimation of the number of persons who may benefit from a pilot program if a program similar to the pilot program were instituted statewide; an estimation of the potential costs of the pilot program and whether the pilot program may lead to savings; a method of determining which persons would be eligible to participate in the pilot program; and which Medicaid waiver programs are appropriate to the pilot program and whether new Medicaid waiver programs may be required.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1905 differs from the original by transferring responsibility for conducting the study to determine the costs and benefits of initiating a pilot program to provide services to adult persons with autism from the Department of Aging and Disability Services to the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission.  The substitute differs from the original by specifying that the pilot program for which the study is conducted includes other persons with disabilities related to autism with similar support needs. The substitute omits the provision from the original requiring the study to identify the potential benefit to adult persons with autism of receiving certain services enumerated in the bill. The substitute includes as required elements of the executive commissioner's report several provisions that are substantially the same as certain elements required by the original to be identified as part of the study.

C.S.H.B. 1905 adds a provision not in the original specifying required content for the report to the governor, the legislature's presiding officers, and committee chairs.

C.S.H.B. 1905 differs from the original by setting a September 1, 2010, deadline for submission of the executive commissioner's report, whereas the original set a September 1, 2011, deadline for the department's report.