| TO: | Honorable Jane Nelson, Chair, Senate Committee on Health & Human Services |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB45 by Zaffirini (Relating to the provision of employment assistance and supported employment to certain Medicaid waiver program participants.), As Introduced |
The bill would add employment assistance and supported employment as benefits in the Community Based Alternatives (CBA), Community Living Assistance and Support Services (CLASS), Deaf-Blind with Multiple Disabilities (DBMD), Home and Community-based Services (HCS), Medically Dependent Children Program (MDCP), and Texas Home Living (TxHmL) 1915(c) Medicaid waivers and in the STAR+PLUS Medicaid managed care program. The bill would be effective immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all members elected to each house; otherwise, the bill would be effective September 1, 2013.
Employment assistance is already a benefit in DBMD and TxHmL; supported employment is already a benefit in CLASS, DBMD, HCS, and TxHmL. It is assumed that adding the additional benefits to waivers where they are not already available and to the STAR+PLUS program would not have a significant fiscal impact. Many of the clients in these programs are not working-age adults and would be unlikely to utilize the new benefit. It is assumed that any cost to provide employment assistance and supported employment services would be mostly offset by a savings from reduced need for attendant care services. The cost of system changes to accommodate the new benefits would also not be significant.
| Source Agencies: | 529 Health and Human Services Commission, 539 Aging and Disability Services, Department of
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| LBB Staff: | UP, CL, LR, NB
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