| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to supportive palliative care in the provision of home and |
|
|
community support services. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Section 142.001, Health and Safety Code, is |
|
|
amended by amending Subdivision (15) and adding Subdivision (28-a) |
|
|
to read as follows: |
|
|
(15) "Hospice services" means services, including |
|
|
services provided by unlicensed personnel under the delegation of a |
|
|
registered nurse or physical therapist, provided to a client or a |
|
|
client's family as part of a coordinated program consistent with |
|
|
the standards and rules adopted under this chapter. These services |
|
|
include palliative care, other than supportive palliative care, for |
|
|
terminally ill clients and support services for clients and their |
|
|
families that: |
|
|
(A) are available 24 hours a day, seven days a |
|
|
week, during the last stages of illness, during death, and during |
|
|
bereavement; |
|
|
(B) are provided by a medically directed |
|
|
interdisciplinary team; and |
|
|
(C) may be provided in a home, nursing home, |
|
|
residential unit, or inpatient unit according to need. These |
|
|
services do not include inpatient care normally provided in a |
|
|
licensed hospital to a terminally ill person who has not elected to |
|
|
be a hospice client. |
|
|
(28-a) "Supportive palliative care" means patient- and |
|
|
family-centered care provided without regard to a patient's age or |
|
|
terminal prognosis that: |
|
|
(A) does not require the patient to decline |
|
|
methods of treatment or therapies that cure or minimize the effects |
|
|
of the patient's illness; and |
|
|
(B) optimizes the quality of life for a patient |
|
|
with a life-threatening or limiting illness and the patient's |
|
|
family by: |
|
|
(i) anticipating, preventing, and treating |
|
|
the patient's pain related to the patient's physical, psychosocial, |
|
|
social, and spiritual condition; |
|
|
(ii) addressing the physical, |
|
|
intellectual, emotional, cultural, social, and spiritual needs of |
|
|
the patient; |
|
|
(iii) facilitating patient autonomy; and |
|
|
(iv) ensuring the patient receives relevant |
|
|
information regarding treatment to enable the patient to provide |
|
|
informed consent. |
|
|
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives |
|
|
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as |
|
|
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this |
|
|
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this |
|
|
Act takes effect September 1, 2019. |