HBA-ALS H.B. 517 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 517 By: Gray Public Health 4/15/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, medicaid reimbursement is allowed for telemedical procedures performed in rural health care facilities. The purpose of this bill is to expand the availability of health care, particularly specialty health care, to citizens throughout the state. H.B. 517 allows medicaid reimbursement for telemedical procedures that are performed in any health facility in the state. 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. Amends Sections 531.047(a), (b), and (c), Government Code, as added by Chapter 1251, Acts of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, by deleting "rural county" and "rural health facility" from the definitions. Defines "health facility." Redesignates Subsection (4) to Subsection (3). Makes conforming changes. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3. Requires a state agency to request a waiver or authorization from a federal agency for implementation of a provision of this Act if the state agency determines that the waiver or authorization is necessary for implementation. SECTION 4. Emergency clause.