BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4298

By: Murr

Public Health

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been suggested that state law governing the licensing and regulation of chemical dependency treatment facilities poses severe challenges for rural and frontier Texas counties, which are being overwhelmed by a methamphetamine epidemic, because these counties lack the population necessary to sustain an adequate number of licensed facilities. C.S.H.B. 4298 seeks to address this issue by providing for the operation of satellite offices of an outpatient chemical dependency care facility under the license of the outpatient facility.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 4298 amends the Health and Safety Code to exempt from statutory provisions regulating chemical dependency treatment facilities a satellite office or location in which the person providing chemical dependency treatment services is operating under the supervision of a licensed outpatient care facility and the services delivered at the satellite site fall within the scope of that outpatient care facility's license.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 4298 differs from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways by conforming to certain bill drafting conventions.