By: Coleman H.B. No. 3459
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the creation and operations of health care provider
participation programs in Harris County Hospital District.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subtitle D, Title 4, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by adding Chapter 299 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 299. HARRIS COUNTY HOSPITAL DISTRICT HEALTH CARE
PROVIDER PARTICIPATION PROGRAM.
SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 299.001 DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Board" means the board of trustees of the
district.
(2) "District" means the Harris County Hospital
District.
(3) "Institutional health care provider" means a
nonpublic hospital located in the district that provides inpatient
hospital services.
(4) "Paying provider" means an institutional health
care provider required to make a mandatory payment under this
chapter.
(5) "Program" means the health care provider
participation program authorized by this chapter.
Sec. 299.002 APPLICABILITY. This chapter applies only to
the Harris County Hospital District.
Sec. 2999.003 HEALTH CARE PROVIDER PARTICIPATION PROGRAM;
PARTICIPATION IN PROGRAM. The board may authorize the district to
participate in a health care provider participation program on the
affirmative vote of the majority of the board, subject to the
provisions of this chapter.
Sec. 299.004 EXPIRATION.
(a) The authority of the district to administer and operate
a program under this chapter expires December 31, 2021.
(b) This chapter expires December 31, 2021.
SUBCHAPTER B. POWERS AND DUTIES OF BOARD
Sec. 299.051 LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY TO REQUIRE MANDATORY
PAYMENT. The board may require a mandatory payment authorized
under this chapter by an institutional health care provider in the
district only in the manner provided by this chapter.
Sec. 299.052 RULES AND PROCEDURES. The board may adopt
rules relating to the administration of the program, including
collection of the mandatory payments, expenditures, audits, and any
other administrative aspects of the program.
Sec. 299.053 PAYING PROVIDER REPORTING. If the board
authorizes the district to participate in a program under this
chapter, the board shall require each paying provider to submit to
the district a copy of any financial and utilization data as
reported in the paying provider's Medicare cost report for the
previous fiscal year or for the closest subsequent fiscal year for
which the paying provider submitted the Medicare cost report.
SUBCHAPTER C. GENERAL FINANCIAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 299.101 HEARING.
(a) In each year that the board authorizes a program under
this chapter, the board shall hold a public hearing on the amounts
of any mandatory payments that the board intends to require during
the year and how the revenue derived from those payments is to be
spent.
(b) Not later than the fifth day before the date of the
hearing required under Subsection (a), the board shall publish
notice of the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the
district and provide written notice.
(c) A representative of a paying provider is entitled to
appear at the public hearing and to be heard regarding any matter
related to the mandatory payments authorized under this chapter.
Sec. 299.102 DEPOSITORY.
(a) If the board requires a mandatory payment authorized
under this chapter, the board shall designate one or more banks as a
depository for the district's local provider participation fund.
(b) All funds collected under this chapter shall be secured
in the manner provided for securing other district funds.
Sec. 299.103 LOCAL PROVIDER PARTICIPATION FUND; AUTHORIZED
USES OF MONEY.
(a) If the district requires a mandatory payment authorized
under this chapter, the district shall create a local provider
participation fund.
(b) The local provider participation fund consists of:
(1) all revenue received by the district attributable
to mandatory payments authorized under this chapter;
(2) money received from the Health and Human Services
Commission as a refund of an intergovernmental transfer under the
program, provided that the intergovernmental transfer does not
receive a federal matching payment; and
(3) the earnings of the fund.
(c) Money deposited to the local provider participation
fund of the district may be used only to:
(1) fund intergovernmental transfers from the
district to the state to provide the nonfederal share of Medicaid
payments for:
(A) uncompensated care payments to nonpublic
hospitals, if those payments are authorized under the Texas
Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program waiver
issued under Section 1115 of the federal Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. Section 1315);
(B) uniform rate enhancements for nonpublic
hospitals in the Medicaid managed care service area in which the
district is located;
(C) payments available under another waiver
program authorizing payments that are substantially similar to
Medicaid payments to nonpublic hospitals described by Subdivision
(A) or (B); or
(D) any reimbursement to nonpublic hospitals for
which federal matching funds are available;
(2) subject to Section 299.151(d), pay the
administrative expenses of the district in administering the
program, including collateralization of deposits;
(3) refund a mandatory payment collected in error from
a paying provider;
(4) refund to paying providers a proportionate share
of a mandatory payment that the district:
(A) receives from the Health and Human Services
Commission that is not used to fund the nonfederal share of Medicaid
supplemental payment program payments; or
(B) determines cannot be used to fund the
nonfederal share of Medicaid supplemental payment program
payments; and
(5) transfer funds to the Health and Human Services
Commission if the district is legally required to transfer funds to
address a disallowance of federal matching funds with respect to
programs for which the district made intergovernmental transfers
described by Subdivision (1).
(d) Money in the local provider participation fund may not
be commingled with other district funds.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter,
with respect to an intergovernmental transfer of funds described by
Subsection (c)(1) made by the district, any funds received by the
state, district, or other entity as a result of the transfer may not
be used by the state, district, or any other entity to:
(1) expand Medicaid eligibility under the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. No. 111-148) as amended
by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Pub. L.
No. 111-152); or
(2) fund the nonfederal share of payments to nonpublic
hospitals available through the Medicaid disproportionate share
hospital program or the delivery system reform incentive payment
program.
SUBCHAPTER D. MANDATORY PAYMENTS
Sec. 299.151 MANDATORY PAYMENTS BASED ON PAYING PROVIDER
NET PATIENT REVENUE.
(a) If the board authorizes a health care provider
participation program under this chapter, the board may require a
mandatory payment to be assessed on the net patient revenue of each
paying provider located in the district. The board may provide for
the mandatory payment to be assessed incrementally throughout the
year; provided, however, that paying providers shall have thirty
(30) calendar days upon receipt of written notice from the district
to make any mandatory payment. In the first year in which the
mandatory payment is required, the mandatory payment is assessed on
the net patient revenue of a paying provider as determined by the
paying provider's copy of its Medicare cost report for the previous
fiscal year or for the closest subsequent fiscal year for which the
paying provider submitted the Medicare cost report.
(b) The amount of a mandatory payment authorized under this
chapter must be uniformly proportionate with the amount of net
patient revenue generated by each paying provider in the district
as permitted under federal law. A health care provider
participation program authorized under this chapter may not hold
harmless any institutional health care provider, as required under
42 U.S.C. Section 1396b(w).
(c) If the board requires a mandatory payment authorized
under this chapter, the board shall set the amount of the mandatory
payment, subject to the limitations of this chapter. The aggregate
amount of the mandatory payments required of all paying providers
in the district may not exceed four percent of the aggregate net
patient revenue from hospital services provided by all paying
providers in the district.
(d) Subject to Subsection (c), if the board requires a
mandatory payment authorized under this chapter, the board shall
set the mandatory payments in amounts that in the aggregate will
generate sufficient revenue to cover the administrative expenses of
the district for activities under this chapter and to fund an
intergovernmental transfer described by Section .103(c)(1). Of the
annual amount of revenue received by the district attributable to
mandatory payments authorized under this chapter, 0.25% shall be
paid to the district for administrative expenses.
(e) A paying provider may not add a mandatory payment
required under this section as a surcharge to a patient.
(f) A mandatory payment assessed under this chapter is not a
tax for hospital purposes for purposes of Section 4, Article IX,
Texas Constitution, or Section 281.045.
Sec. 299.152 ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF MANDATORY
PAYMENTS.
(a) The district may designate an official of the district
or contract with another person to assess and collect the mandatory
payments authorized under this chapter.
(b) The person charged by the district with the assessment
and collection of mandatory payments shall charge and deduct from
the mandatory payments collected for the district a collection fee
in an amount not to exceed the person's usual and customary charges
for like services.
(c) If the person charged with the assessment and collection
of mandatory payments is an official of the district, any revenue
from a collection fee charged under Subsection (b) shall be
deposited in the district general fund and, if appropriate, shall
be reported as fees of the district.
Sec. 299.153 PURPOSE; CORRECTION OF INVALID PROVISION OR
PROCEDURE; LIMITATION OF AUTHORITY.
(a) The purpose of this chapter is to authorize the district
to establish a program to enable the district to collect mandatory
payments from institutional health care providers to fund the
nonfederal share of a Medicaid supplemental payment program or the
Medicaid managed care rate enhancements for nonpublic hospitals to
support the provision of health care by institutional health care
providers to district residents in need of health care.
(b) This chapter does not authorize the district to collect
mandatory payments for the purpose of raising general revenue or
any amount in excess of the amount reasonably necessary to fund the
uses described in Section 299.103(c) to cover the administrative
expenses of the district associated with activities under this
chapter.
(c) To the extent any provision or procedure under this
chapter causes a mandatory payment authorized under this chapter to
be ineligible for federal matching funds, the board may provide by
rule for an alternative provision or procedure that conforms to the
requirements of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services. A rule adopted under this section may not create, impose,
or materially expand the legal or financial liability or
responsibility of the district or an institutional health care
provider in the district beyond the provisions of this chapter.
This section does not require the board to adopt a rule.
(d) The district may only assess and collect a mandatory
payment authorized under this chapter if a waiver program, uniform
rate enhancement, or reimbursement described by Section
299.103(c)(1) is available to the district.
SECTION 2. 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 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.