86R7123 SCL-D

By: Frank H.B. No. 3934

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the authority of rural hospitals to establish a health care collaborative.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 848.001, Insurance Code, is amended by amending Subdivision (2) and adding Subdivision (10) to read as follows:

(2) "Health care collaborative" means an entity:

(A) that undertakes to arrange for medical and health care services for insurers, health maintenance organizations, and other payors in exchange for payments in cash or in kind;

(B) that accepts and distributes payments for medical and health care services;

(C) that consists of:

(i) physicians;

(ii) rural hospitals;

(iii) physicians and other health care providers;

(iv) [(iii)] physicians and insurers or health maintenance organizations; or

(v) [(iv)] physicians, other health care providers, and insurers or health maintenance organizations; and

(D) that is certified by the commissioner under this chapter to lawfully accept and distribute payments to physicians and other health care providers using the reimbursement methodologies authorized by this chapter.

(10) "Rural hospital" means a licensed hospital with 75 beds or fewer that:

(A) is located in a county with a population of 50,000 or less; or

(B) has been designated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a critical access hospital, rural referral center, or sole community hospital.

SECTION 2. Section 848.052, Insurance Code, is amended by adding Subsection (c-1) to read as follows:

(c-1) If the participants in a health care collaborative are all rural hospitals, each member of the board of directors must be a representative of a participant.

SECTION 3. 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.