Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB384, Committee
Report 1st House, Substituted: a negative impact of ($460,634) through the biennium ending
August 31, 2021. The Health and Human Services Commission is required to implement a
provision of this bill only if the Legislature appropriates money specifically for that purpose. If the
Legislature does not appropriate money specifically for that purpose, the Health and Human
Services Commission may, but is not required to, implement a provision of the bill using other
appropriations available for that purpose.
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of
funds to implement the provisions of the bill.
SB 384 would require any health care facility to report to the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) each health care-associated infection that occurs in the facility and that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires a facility participating in the Medicare program to report. The bill would expand reporting requirements beyond just surgical site infections to health care-associated infections generally, and would remove certain exemptions to reporting that currently apply to pediatric and adolescent hospitals.
The bill would additionally dispense with outlining specific categories of infections that must be reported and instead require infections that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
require facilities participating in the Medicare program to be reported (regardless of whether the facility participates in Medicare or not).
Texas Action remains neutral on SB 384 because it does not significantly affect our liberty principles. This bill would merely align the state reporting requirements for health care-associated infections with those currently in place from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.