S-3131

   Amend House File 933, as amended, passed, and reprinted by the House, as follows:
   1.  By striking page 1, line 3, through page 4, line 9, and inserting: 
   <Sec. ___.  Section 135C.1, Code 2025, is amended by adding the following new subsection:
   NEW SUBSECTION.  16A.  “Pediatric palliative care patient” means an individual described by all of the following:
   a.  The individual is under twenty-one years of age.
   b.  The individual has been diagnosed with a chronic, complex, life-threatening illness that is expected to shorten the individual’s life expectancy.
   c.  The individual is not expected to survive past twenty-one years of age.
   Sec. ___.  Section 135C.2, Code 2025, is amended by adding the following new subsection:
   NEW SUBSECTION.  5A.  The department shall establish a special classification within the residential care facility category for residential care facilities which have the primary purpose of serving pediatric palliative care patients and that only provides respite care services and the services of a hospice program as defined in section 135J.1. A facility within the special classification established pursuant to this subsection shall be exempt from section 10A.713. The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A which shall include but not be limited to all of the following:
   a.  A residential care facility within the special classification established pursuant to this subsection may be referred to as a pediatric palliative care center.
   b.  A licensed residential care facility within the special classification established pursuant to this subsection shall be eligible for funding available to hospice programs licensed under chapter 135J, and licensed residential care facilities that treat individuals with an illness or disability, including but not limited to funding from the federal social services block grant, the state supplementary assistance program, the hospice respite benefit, home and community-based services waivers, any funding source under chapter 249A, and any benefit a nursing facility may be eligible for related to respite care services.
   Sec. ___.  EMERGENCY RULES.  The department of health and human services may adopt emergency rules under section 17A.4, subsection 3, and section 17A.5, subsection 2, paragraph “b”, to implement the provisions of this Act and the rules shall be effective immediately upon filing unless a later date is specified in the rules. Any rules adopted in accordance with this section shall also be published as a notice of intended action as provided in section 17A.4.
   Sec. ___.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act, being deemed of immediate importance, takes effect upon enactment.>
   2.  Title page, line 1, after <centers> by inserting <, and including effective date provisions>
   3.  By renumbering as necessary.

______________________________
KARA WARME

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ANNETTE SWEENEY