Highlights 77th Texas Legislature - Senate

__ HEALTH AND HUMAN
ERVICES/Health Care
UMAN SERVICES
77 th Texas Legislature
Requires registered nurses to participate in not less than two hours of continuing education relating to
hepatitis C. The Board of Nurse Examiners must recognize, prepare, or administer a training component
providing information relating to the prevention, assessment, and treatment of hepatitis C for use in such
continuing education. This provision applies only to registered nurses renewing their licenses on or after
June 1, 2002, and expires June 1, 2004.
Rural Physician Relief Program - S.B. 516
by Senator Madla
House Sponsor: Representative Hawley
The Texas Center for Rural Health Initiatives concluded, in a study, that rural Texas physicians have
demonstrated a need for a state-supported rural physician relief program to preserve the rural health care
infrastructure and help improve access to care for rural Texans.
Requires the center to create a program providing affordable relief services to rural physicians practicing in
the fields of general family medicine, general internal medicine, and general pediatrics to enable them to
take time away from their practice. Requires the center to charge a fee for rural physicians participating in
the program and pay relief physicians from fees collected by the center.
Requires the center to assign relief physicians to rural areas according to the following priorities:
• solo practitioners;
• counties that have fewer than seven residents per square mile;
• counties that have been designated under federal law as a health professional shortage area;
• counties that do not have a hospital; and
• counties that have a hospital but do not have a continuously staffed hospital emergency room.
Funding for Treatment of Breast or Cervical Cancer - S.B. 532
by Senator Nelson, et al.
House Sponsors: Representative Maxey, et al.
The federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 allows states to choose to
receive federal Medicaid matching funds to provide medical care and treatment to low-income women
under age 65 who need treatment for breast or cervical cancer.
Requires the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to provide breast or cervical cancer
treatment to eligible persons for a continuous period during which the person requires the treatment.
Requires HHSC to simplify the provider enrollment process for a provider of that medical assistance and to
adopt rules to provide for certification of presumptive eligibility of a person for that assistance.
Prohibits HHSC to the extent allowed by federal law from requiring a personal interview to determine a
person’s eligibility for medical assistance for treatment of breast or cervical cancer.
Senate Research Center 123