86R7123 SCL-D
By: Perry S.B. No. 1444
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.