SB1383

The new chapter covers entities paid by a consumer or community to make senior-living referrals. It excludes the community and its employees, and residents, their family members or patrons making referrals even if rewarded. Covered communities include adult foster care, life care, licensed assisted living, retirement and memory-care facilities and other facilities providing the listed services specifically for elderly individuals. Final law, section 121.001.

At the referral: the agency must give a physical or electronic written disclosure describing its services, who is responsible for the fee, the consumer’s ability to leave without cause or penalty, and the possible incompleteness of its list. It must consider the consumer’s preferences, not select solely on cost. A community cannot be required to use an agency. If the consumer stops using it, the agency must notify every community to which it referred that consumer. Final law, section 121.002.

Prohibited practices: an agency cannot refer to a community in which it has an ownership, management or financial interest; hold the consumer’s power of attorney or property; or knowingly refer to an unlicensed community that is not legally exempt from licensing. It cannot collect a fee after the referral expires under its contract. A transfer between properties of the same community cannot generate a referral fee unless the consumer engaged the agency to facilitate the transfer and the agency supplied more than one referral. Final law, section 121.003.

Required safeguards: agencies must obtain criminal histories through a nationally accredited provider for new direct-contact employees and employees entering communities to make consumer referrals; carry negligence liability insurance; check and record that applicable community licenses are in good standing; and train direct-contact staff, including on the agency’s code of conduct, before they start that work. Agencies must give the community written, dated and timed notice of a referral by the consumer’s admission date. Contracts must set a payment period no longer than three years after the referral. That is a maximum contractual payment period, not a guarantee of three years of fees. Final law, section 121.004.

Compensation and limits: written agency-community contracts may base compensation on referral volume or value, or business generated. Compensation complying with section 121.005 cannot itself be grounds to discipline the community. The act also exempts a defined referral agency from the state patient-solicitation offense, which previously generally prohibited knowingly offering payment or agreeing to accept remuneration for securing patients or patronage for state-regulated health professionals or businesses. But contracts for compensation prohibited by federal law remain forbidden, including the federal health-care anti-kickback provisions; this is not blanket permission for every referral payment. Other community-regulation laws and existing defenses, remedies, immunities and privileges are preserved. Final law; Prior solicitation offense; Prior exemptions; Referenced federal statute.

How it changed: the introduced bill mainly authorized compensation arrangements and the state-offense exemption. The Senate substitute added the consumer safeguards, duties and limits. Adopted Senate amendment F1 explicitly preserved federal compensation prohibitions. Adopted House amendment 1 added the warning that a referral list may be incomplete and deleted a sentence saying a consumer’s departure does not affect the agency-community contract. The final act retains the duty to notify communities but not that deleted assurance; it does not expressly say every existing payment obligation is canceled. Introduced; Senate substitute; Senate-passed; House committee; Senate amendment F1; House amendment 1; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Families gain clearer information about a paid referral service and its limitations. Agencies gain express rules for compensation but also face insurance, screening, training, recordkeeping and conflict-of-interest obligations. The act does not cap referral fees or require a list of every suitable community; the disclosure warns that the list may be incomplete. It creates no separate agency-licensing program or specific new penalty schedule in the added chapter. Final law.

The final May 17 fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal effect and assumes no significant local enforcement, prosecution, supervision or confinement costs. Earlier notes reached the same general conclusion. These public-budget estimates do not measure agencies’ private compliance costs, families’ savings, or improvements in placement quality. The law makes no appropriation. Final-stage fiscal note; Introduced fiscal note; Final law.