HBA-DMH H.B. 1124 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1124 By: Turner, Bob Public Health 3/21/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In rural areas, health care practitioner recruitment and retention rates are significantly lower than those in urban and suburban areas, creating a shortage of physicians, nurses, and therapists for residents in rural areas. Identifying young people from those areas with an interest in a health care career is one path to effectuating change. Supporting a young person's interest in a health care profession may help to reinforce and cultivate those interests and lead to his or her willingness to practice in a rural setting in the future. House Bill 1124 establishes a community healthcare awareness and mentoring program to identify, encourage, and support potential health care professionals from rural and underserved urban areas. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Board of Health in SECTION 1 (Section 106.251, Health and Safety Code) and to the executive committee of the Center for Rural Health Initiatives in SECTION 1 (Section 106.254, Health and Safety Code) of this bill. ANALYSIS House Bill 1124 amends the Health and Safety Code to create a community healthcare awareness and mentoring program (program) to identify, encourage, and support students from rural and medically underserved urban areas, as defined by Texas Board of Health rule, that are interested in serving those areas as health care professionals. The bill requires the executive committee (committee) of the Center for Rural Health Initiatives (center) to establish the program, and sets forth requirements for the administration of the program by the center. The bill requires the committee, subject to availability of funds, to develop and implement a grant program to support employment opportunities in rural and underserved urban areas for students participating in training or educational programs to become health care professionals. The bill sets forth grant eligibility requirements and provisions regarding grant priority and grant repayment, including a penalty in an amount established by rule of the committee if a student fails to practice or work for at least one year as a health care professional in a rural or underserved urban area. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.