BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 38

By: Bucy

Public Health

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Calling 2-1-1 connects Texans to the Texas Information and Referral Network (TIRN) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for assistance with necessities like food, housing, child care, or other local, non-emergency services. The bill author has informed the committee that while TIRN is funded by the Health and Human Services Commission, the network partners with local organizations, such as United Ways and councils of governments, across Texas to provide information and referral services via 2-1-1 call centers. The bill author has also informed the committee that statewide call volume to 2-1-1 exceeded 1.3 million people in 2024, yet funding for 2-1-1 has remained stagnant for nearly 14 years and technological advancement has also remained relatively stagnant due to lack of resources and statutory guidance. C.S.H.B. 38 seeks to better connect Texans to necessary resources by providing technological improvements for TIRN.

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. 38 amends the Government Code to revise requirements applicable to the Texas Information and Referral Network (TIRN) in the following manner:

·       with respect to the requirement to be capable of assisting with statewide disaster response and emergency management, including through the use of interstate agreements with out-of-state call centers to ensure preparedness and responsiveness:

o   includes statewide disaster preparedness among the services with which TIRN must be capable of assisting; and

o   includes the use of memoranda of understanding with state and local agencies as a method of satisfying the requirement;

·       specifies that the requirement to include technology capable of communicating with clients of state and local agencies using electronic text messaging includes one-way and two-way electronic text messaging; and

·       specifies that the purpose of such messaging is to enhance client access to information and referral services, decrease client wait times, improve customer service, and disseminate information to clients in a timely manner, including during a state of disaster.

The bill additionally requires TIRN to do the following:

·       include in its publicly accessible Internet-based system aggregated, de-identified demographic information regarding the clients and client households served by TIRN, including, if the information is volunteered by the clients after they have been given an opportunity to provide informed and explicit consent, the gender, race, and ethnicity of each client and whether the client or a member of the client's household is:

o   a veteran;

o   involved in the criminal justice system;

o   pregnant;

o   the caregiver to a child who is five years of age or younger;

o   a kinship caregiver providing care to a child and whether the child is in the custody of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS);

o   enrolled in a public institution of higher education;

o   65 years of age or older; or

o   a caregiver providing care to an individual who is 65 years of age or older;

·       use a standardized screening tool to identify the nonmedical drivers of health for all clients who provide informed and explicit consent to be screened using the tool;

·       provide enhanced navigation services under a level of care three (LOC-3) as prescribed by the Health and Human Services Commission's (HHSC) Texas Resilience and Recovery Utilization Management Guidelines in order to better address complex client needs and collaborate with community partners;

·       be capable of providing closed-loop referrals to support clients and track referral outcomes;

·       exchange resource data with external partners, including vendors, through data sharing agreements for the purposes of connecting clients to a requested service, addressing nonmedical drivers of health, and decreasing redundancies in the health and human services system;

·       comply with all applicable state and federal laws relating to protecting the privacy of each client's health and personal information, including the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996;

·       include call centers that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and

·       be capable of providing backup information and referrals during a statewide disaster or system malfunction.

C.S.H.B. 38, for the purpose of enhancing TIRN's capacity and responsiveness in disaster preparation, response, and recovery, requires HHSC to coordinate with the Homeland Security Council and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to integrate TIRN into the state's homeland security strategic plan and the state emergency management plan. The bill authorizes health care systems and managed care organizations to partner and enter into agreements with HHSC and area information centers to share data using TIRN to facilitate client care coordination and address nonmedical drivers of health, including housing, transportation, food, and financial assistance programs. The bill requires an area information center that contracts with HHSC for purposes of providing TIRN operations to be accredited by a nationally recognized accreditation organization.

C.S.H.B. 38 requires a website developed by TIRN providing for health and human services referral information to be user-friendly and regularly updated to ensure the website's interface supports the navigation needs of the website's users. The bill requires the material on the website to be organized in such a way that the public can search and navigate through it with ease.

C.S.H.B. 38 requires HHSC, not later than December 31 of each even-numbered year, to prepare and submit a report to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the house of representatives and make the report publicly available on HHSC's website and TIRN's website. The report must do the following:

·       summarize TIRN's operations during the preceding two state fiscal years, including its effectiveness and any improvements made to TIRN;

·       identify existing needs and gaps in services in Texas communities that could be addressed through additional improvements to TIRN;

·       provide recommendations for improving TIRN, including recommendations for improving data privacy and client experience; and

·       describe HHSC's efforts to collaborate and coordinate with other state and local agencies and entities, including HHSC's efforts to integrate TIRN into relevant plans and programs administered by state and local agencies and to exchange resource data with relevant entities.

If before implementing any provision of the bill a state agency determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the agency affected by the provision must request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 38 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

While both the introduced and the substitute revise the requirements applicable to TIRN, the versions differ as follows:

·       the substitute requires TIRN to be capable of assisting with statewide disaster preparedness and specifies that TIRN must be capable of assisting with statewide disaster preparedness, response, and emergency management through the use of memoranda of understanding with state and local agencies, which the introduced did not do;

·       whereas the introduced specified that the requirement for TIRN to include technology capable of communicating with clients of state and local agencies using electronic text messaging includes disseminating information to clients in a timely manner, the substitute includes a specification absent from the introduced that such dissemination includes during a state of disaster; and

·       whereas the introduced included in TIRN's publicly accessible Internet-based system aggregated, de-identified demographic information regarding the clients and client households served by TIRN, including whether the client or a member of the client's household is the caregiver to a child who is five years of age or younger or a kinship giver, the substitute instead includes whether the client or a member of the client's household is any of the following:

o   a kinship caregiver providing care to a child and whether the child is in the custody of DFPS;

o   enrolled in a public institution of higher education;

o   65 years of age or older; or

o   a caregiver providing care to an individual who is 65 years of age or older.

The substitute omits the requirement from the introduced for TIRN to be part of a national repository of information and referral programs and services that provides the most updated information about programs and services available at the local, regional, state, and national levels. The substitute instead includes a requirement for TIRN to include call centers that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whereas the introduced did not do so. The substitute also includes provisions absent from the introduced that do the following:

·       require HHSC to coordinate with the Homeland Security Council and TDEM to integrate TIRN into Texas' homeland security strategic plan and the state emergency management plan; and

·       include among the requisite contents of the biennial report a description of HHSC's efforts to collaborate and coordinate with other state and local agencies and entities.