Bill-Killing House Deadline Passes; an Update on What’s Still Alive
By Joey Berlin

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The possibilities of what the House of Medicine can achieve during this session of the Texas Legislature are narrower – but also clearer – after the passage of a key House of Representatives deadline just hours ago. 

Midnight on Thursday night was the deadline for all bills originating in the House to receive a second reading in that chamber (out of the three required before a chamber finally passes a bill). Any House bill that didn’t yet reach that stage is now dead. 

At press time, the Texas Medical Association was hoping to see a few bills on Thursday’s House floor calendar get past that second-reading threshold before the deadline. But here’s a look at medicine-prioritized measures – in both the House and the Senate – that are still alive after passing at least one chamber. 

PASSED BOTH CHAMBERS 

House Bill 5 by Rep. Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin) expands broadband service in the state. An amended version of HB 5 passed the Senate, and the House didn’t agree to those amendments, so a conference committee must work out the differences. 

PASSED THE HOUSE 

  • House Bill 4 by Rep. Four Price (R-Amarillo) would make permanent some of the allowances for expanded telemedicine use that were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as payment for telemedicine for early childhood intervention services and Medicaid waiver programs. 

  • House Bill 133 by Rep. Toni Rose (D-Dallas) would provide pregnant women on Medicaid with continuous coverage under the program for 12 months postpartum. 

  • House Bill 290 by Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) would improve continuity of care for children on Medicaid by streamlining eligibility checks. 

  • House Bill 907 by Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Farmers Branch) would severely restrict insurers’ ability to institute prior authorization on prescriptions for autoimmune diseases. 

  • House Bill 1646 by Rep. Stan Lambert (R-Abilene) would prohibit insurers from, among other things, adding prior authorization or imposing a step-therapy restriction on a prescription drug, if the insurer already approved the drug the previous plan year and the patient’s physician says the drug is the most appropriate treatment. 

  • House Bill 1763 by Rep. Tom Oliverson, MD (R-Cypress), would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from “clawing back” pharmacies’ insurance payments once a claim is complete. 

  • House Bill 2929 by Rep. Greg Bonnen, MD (R-Friendswood), would add more specificity to the law that prevents insurers from taking “any retaliatory action” against a physician who files a complaint on a patient’s behalf. 

  • House Bill 3233 by Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) would allow for needle exchange pilot programs to help curb infectious and communicable diseases. 

  • House Bill 3459 by Representative Bonnen would allow physicians who achieve a certain percentage of prior authorization approvals for a service to be “gold-carded” out of prior auth for that service the following year. The bill also would require utilization reviews to be conducted by physicians of the same or a similar specialty as the doctor who requested approval for the treatment. 

  • House Bill 4012 by Representative Bonnen would require health plans to disclose prices for certain services requiring preauthorization. 

  • House Bill 4139 by Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Dallas) would establish a state office for health equity to examine social determinants of health. 

  • House Bill 4272 by Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth) would modernize the state’s immunization registry (ImmTrac2) and allow for disaster immunization records to be retained for at least seven years, and possibly longer with a person’s consent. 
     

    PASSED THE SENATE 

  • Senate Bill 6 by Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) would increase liability protections for physicians and other health care workers during a disaster or pandemic. 

  • Senate Bill 248 by Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas) requires electronic cigarette retailers to obtain permits, establishing a framework to regulate vaping products similarly to other cigarette products. 

  • Senate Bill 672 by Sen. Dawn Buckingham, MD (R-Lakeway), requires payment for Medicaid behavioral health services that are classified as collaborative care.  

  • Senate Bill 1490 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) would ensure the availability of clerkships for Texas medical school students by addressing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s process by which it grants authorization to private, out-of-state medical and other professional schools to operate in the state. 

And don’t forget that one of TMA’s priority measures has already been signed into law. That’s House Bill 1445 by Representative Oliverson, which cancels a planned tax on outsourced medical billing services that was set to go into effect later this year. 



Last Updated On

May 13, 2021

Originally Published On

May 13, 2021

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