HBA-MPM H.B. 342 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 342 By: McClendon Public Health 3/5/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The House Committee on Public Health, in its Interim Report to the 77th Legislature, indicated that disease management is a growing trend in both public and privately funded health care delivery systems. The focus of disease management is on improving quality and containing total cost to provide a more effective and systematic approach to managing patients with chronic illnesses. The Subcommittee on Disease Management, in addressing the charge of evaluating the role and potential of disease management in public health programs serving chronically ill populations, recommended that a disease management pilot study be conducted to study asthma. More than one million Texans suffer from asthma and one-third are children. Asthma, which is a chronic, potentially fatal disease, appears to be an ideal target for disease management, as it has the potential through disease management for cost-effectiveness while improving the quality of care. House Bill 342 establishes a children's asthma disease management pilot study to be conducted in both a rural and urban environment using techniques that are transferable to private practice. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Department of Health in SECTION 1 (Section 95.001, Health and Safety Code). ANALYSIS House Bill 342 amends the Health and Safety Code to require the Texas Department of Health (TDH), by rule, to establish a children's asthma disease management pilot study to be conducted in both an urban and rural environment using techniques that are transferable to private practice. The bill requires TDH to compare preventative disease management methods with traditional methods. The pilot study may measure the following outcomes: school absenteeism, hospitalization, frequency of asthma symptoms, impact of asthma on the family, and economic effects of asthma. The bill requires TDH to submit to the legislature an interim report by November 1, 2002, and a final report by November 1, 2003, containing the findings and recommendations of the pilot study. The pilot study expires September 1, 2005. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.