By: Deuell, et al. S.B. No. 187
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a Medicaid buy-in program for certain children with
disabilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 531.02444, Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 531.02444. MEDICAID BUY-IN PROGRAMS [PROGRAM] FOR
CERTAIN PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES. (a) The executive
commissioner shall develop and implement:
(1) a Medicaid buy-in program for persons with
disabilities as authorized by the Ticket to Work and Work
Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub. L. No. 106-170) or the
Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Pub. L. No. 105-33); and
(2) as authorized by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
(Pub. L. No. 109-171), a Medicaid buy-in program for disabled
children described by 42 U.S.C. Section 1396a(cc)(1) whose family
incomes do not exceed 300 percent of the applicable federal poverty
level.
(b) The executive commissioner shall adopt rules in
accordance with federal law that provide for:
(1) eligibility requirements for each [the] program
described by Subsection (a); and
(2) requirements for participants in the program to
pay premiums or cost-sharing payments, subject to Subsection (c).
(c) Rules adopted by the executive commissioner under
Subsection (b) with respect to the program for disabled children
described by Subsection (a)(2) must require a participant to pay
monthly premiums according to a sliding scale that is based on
family income, subject to the requirements of 42 U.S.C. Sections
1396o(i)(2) and (3).
SECTION 2. Not later than December 1, 2009, the executive
commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission shall
develop and implement the Medicaid buy-in program for disabled
children under Section 531.02444, Government Code, as amended by
this Act.
SECTION 3. If before implementing any provision of this Act
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 shall request the waiver or
authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the
waiver or authorization is granted.
SECTION 4. This Act does not make an appropriation. This
Act takes effect only if a specific appropriation for the
implementation of the Act is provided in a general appropriations
act of the 81st Legislature.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.