HBA-GUM S.B. 983 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 983 By: Madla Public Health 5/13/1999 Committee Report (Amended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, the Texas Department of Health requires a branch office of a home health agency to be located within 70 miles of a main office. There are a number of areas of Texas that cannot be served by such a branch office due to that requirement. Ten years ago, the Health Care Financing Administration first instructed its surveyors that driving time and distance should not be used as a criteria in evaluating a branch office. S.B. 983 requires the commissioner of health and human services to contact the federal Health Care Financing Administration to request the adoption of certain rules regarding modern methods of communication and driving distance requirements. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Requires the commissioner of health and human services, after consulting with certain health professionals and consumers, to contact the federal Health Care Financing Administration to request the adoption of rules to allow a home and community support services agency to use modern methods of communication in the supervision of the agency's branch offices, and eliminate driving distance requirements or allow the state to set its own driving distance requirements for such a branch office. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS Amendment No. 1 deletes proposed text requiring the commissioner of health and human services, after consulting with certain health professionals and consumers, to contact the federal Health Care Financing Administration to request the adoption of rules to allow the state to set its own driving distance requirements for a branch office of a home and community support services agency.