TITLE: Relating to fostering collaboration among health care systems to provide indigent health care to communities more efficiently.

SUMMARY: Relating to fostering collaboration among health care systems to provide indigent health care to communities more efficiently.

FULL TEXT:
AN ACT relating to fostering collaboration among health care systems to provide indigent health care to communities more efficiently. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 531, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 531.098 to read as follows: Sec. 531.098. INDIGENT HEALTH CARE COLLABORATION. (a) The executive commissioner shall adopt rules to foster collaboration among and within systems that provide indigent health care services in the state, including: (1) hospital districts; (2) public hospitals; (3) indigent health care programs provided by counties; (4) community-owned health care systems; and (5) federally qualified health centers. (b) The rules must: (1) emphasize community-based care to improve the continuity and quality of indigent health care; (2) address the variation in indigent health care services provided to urban and rural settings; (3) remove legal and practical barriers to collaboration; (4) provide guidance to systems for detecting and treating mental illness; (5) facilitate the creation of special programs to assist patients in navigating the systems that provide indigent health care services; and (6) adopt changes that maximize funding and increase the efficiency of indigent health care provided to communities in the state. (c) In adopting the rules, the executive commissioner shall consider recommending that the systems described by Subsection (a) incorporate the following principles: (1) promote patient responsibility and program viability; (2) provide a medical home for members; (3) make evidence-based health care decisions; (4) pay providers based on a fee-for-service basis; (5) ensure members receive necessary medication; and (6) develop community partnerships to expand indigent health care services. SECTION 2. The executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission shall adopt the rules required by Section 531.098, Government Code, as added by this Act, not later than January 1, 2012. SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.