Sec. 300.0151. MANDATORY PAYMENTS. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (e), if the governing body of a local government authorizes a health care provider participation program under this chapter, the governing body shall require an annual mandatory payment to be assessed on the net patient revenue of each institutional health care provider located in the hospital district, county, or municipality, as applicable. The governing body of the local government shall provide that the mandatory payment is to be assessed at least annually, but not more often than quarterly. In the first year in which the mandatory payment is required, the mandatory payment is assessed on the net patient revenue of an institutional health care provider located in the hospital district, county, or municipality, as applicable, as determined by the data reported to the Department of State Health Services under Sections 311.032 and 311.033 in the most recent fiscal year for which that data was reported. If the institutional health care provider did not report any data under those sections, the provider's net patient revenue is the amount of that revenue as contained in the provider's Medicare cost report submitted for the previous fiscal year or for the closest subsequent fiscal year for which the provider submitted the Medicare cost report. The local government shall update the amount of the mandatory payment on an annual basis.

(b) The amount of a mandatory payment authorized under this chapter for a local government must be uniformly proportionate with the amount of net patient revenue generated by each paying hospital in the hospital district, county, or municipality, as applicable, as permitted under federal law. A health care provider participation program authorized under this chapter may not hold harmless any institutional health care provider, as required under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396b(w).

(c) The governing body of a local government that authorizes a program under this chapter shall set the amount of the mandatory payment. The aggregate amount of the mandatory payments required of all paying hospitals in the hospital district, county, or municipality, as applicable, may not exceed six percent of the aggregate net patient revenue from hospital services provided by all paying hospitals in the hospital district, county, or municipality, as applicable.

(d) Subject to Subsection (c), the governing body of a local government shall set the mandatory payments in amounts that in the aggregate will generate sufficient revenue to cover the administrative expenses of the local government for activities under this chapter and to fund an intergovernmental transfer described by Section 300.0103(b)(1). The annual amount of revenue from mandatory payments that shall be paid for administrative expenses for activities under this chapter by the local government may not exceed $150,000, plus the cost of collateralization of deposits, regardless of actual expenses.

(e) A paying hospital may not add a mandatory payment required under this section as a surcharge to a patient.

(f) A mandatory payment required by the governing body of a hospital district under this chapter is not a tax for purposes of the applicable provision of Article IX, Texas Constitution.

Added by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 923 (H.B. 4289), Sec. 1, eff. June 10, 2019.