Key Bills for Medicine in the 85th Texas Legislature

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Charting the Texas Legislature: Key Bills for Medicine — August 2017

Tex Med. 2017;113(7):45–46.

Over nearly five grueling months of the 85th Texas legislative session, the House of Medicine pushed hard to advance the interests of Texas physicians and the state's health care landscape, succeeding on several important fronts before the legislature adjourned sine die on May 29. 

Medicine's victories in the regular session include opening up surprise billing mediation to more patients; a groundbreaking new definition of telemedicine; a statewide ban on texting and driving; and a prohibition on discrimination against physicians based on maintenance of certification.

Texas Medicine looks at how medicine did on many of the thousands of bills that TMA tracked during the 85th Legislature.

Medicine's Bills Signed by the Governor

House Bill 10 by Rep. Four Price (R-Amarillo) will establish a state mental health parity work group, designate an ombudsman as an advocacy resource, and clarify benefit terms and coverage for mental health and substance use. The Texas Medical Association hopes the legislation also will improve Texas Department of Insurance mental health parity oversight; increase physician, health care provider, and patient engagement toward achieving true mental health parity; and identify areas to improve historic parity challenges.

House Bill 62 by Rep. Tom Craddick (R-Midland) bans texting while driving statewide, ending Texas' status as one of just a few states that haven't banned the practice. The measure was a TMA and Texas Public Health Coalition priority.

Senate Bill 81, Sen. Jane Nelson's (R-Flower Mound) Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas sunset bill, extends the sunset date of the research organization from 2021 to 2023, while also adding two years to its eligibility to allocate funds, to 2022.

House Bill 435 by Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) will allow the Texas Department of State Health Services to post signs prohibiting handguns at Texas' 10 state mental health hospitals.

Senate Bill 507 by Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) and Rep. John Frullo (R-Lubbock) will expand the billing mediation process to all physicians and others who provide out-of-network services at certain in-network facilities. It also expands mediation to out-of-network situations for emergency care.

Senate Bill 680 by Senator Hancock further empowers physicians to override health plans' step therapy protocols, an override that allows doctors to continue prescribing an effective medication even if the insurer's step therapy plan calls for a change in medication. SB 680 expedites the timetable for physician override from the current 53 days to just three.

Senate Bill 1066 by Sen. Charles Schwertner, MD (R-Georgetown), requires new medical schools to offer new graduate medical education positions to keep pace with their medical graduates.

Senate Bill 1076 by Senator Schwertner prohibits health plans that cover prescription drugs from charging the patient more than the applicable copayment or the amount of the actual prescription drug, whichever is less.

Senate Bill 1107 by Senator Schwertner establishes a statutory definition for telemedicine and clarifies that the standard of care for a traditional, in-person medical setting also applies to telemedicine services. In the House, Representative Price added language making it clearer that telemedicine is not a distinct service but a tool physicians can use.

Senate Bill 1148 by Sen. Dawn Buckingham, MD (R-Lakeway), prohibits the state from using maintenance of certification (MOC) as a requirement for state licensure or renewal, hospital privileges, or insurance participation. The bill contains exemptions for medical schools, comprehensive care centers, and hospitals where MOC is required for specific accreditation.

House Bill 1600 by Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) will allow Medicaid to pay physicians to conduct mental health screenings during each annual well-child exam, under the Texas Health Steps program. This bill improves the current scenario in which designated Medicaid procedure codes for this screening may be used only once in a young patient's lifetime (between ages 12 and 18).

House Bill 2466 by Rep. Sarah Davis (R-West University Place) will require children's Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program to cover maternal depression screening for an enrolled child's mother during a covered well-baby visit or other office visit to a pediatrician or pediatric provider. Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), the Senate sponsor, added an amendment that allows pregnant women enrolling in Medicaid to sign up for texts, emails, or phone calls from their Medicaid HMO to receive appointment reminders as well as health information to maintain a healthy pregnancy.

House Bill 2561 by Representative Thompson includes Physician Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) initiatives to identify potentially harmful prescribing or dispensing patterns or practices that might suggest drug diversion or "doctor shopping." The bill contains language to utilize PDMP technology to issue push-out information to prescribers and dispensers relating to potential drug abuse. Another amendment calls for physicians and all other prescribers and dispensers to check the PDMP before prescribing opioid medications and three other drug classes beginning Sept. 1, 2019.

House Bill 3576 by Rep. Bobby Guerra (D-McAllen) will shore up the state's testing and screening capabilities for infectious diseases, such as the Zika virus.

Bills TMA Opposed That Died

Senate Bill 95 by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) would have expanded the lawful sale of raw, unpasteurized milk and cheese at farmers markets.

House Bill 593 by Rep. Dustin Burrows (R–Lubbock) and its companion, Senate Bill 1240 by Sen. José Rodríguez (D-El Paso), would have allowed psychologists prescribing authority, a practice reserved for medical school-trained physicians.

Senate Bill 728 by Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano) and its companion, House Bill 2118 by Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth), would have allowed patients 30 days of direct access to treatment by physical therapists without being seen first by a physician.

House Bill 1070 by Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) would have prohibited physicians from refusing to care for a patient based on his or her immunization status.

House Bill 1124 by Rep. Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth) and its companion, Senate Bill 2008 by Senator Taylor, would have made it easier for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children.

House Bill 1415 by Representative Klick and its companion, Senate Bill 681 by Senator Hancock, would have granted advanced practice registered nurses full, independent practice and prescribing authority without physician supervision.

House Bill 1675 by Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) would have allowed health plans to require physicians to accept virtual credit cards for payment for services rendered.

Senate Bill 2127 by Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) would have prohibited a credit reporting agency from including on a credit report a collection account for certain health care services provided by out-of-network physicians.

House Bill 4011 by Representative Burrows would have amounted to unnecessary overregulation of the business of medicine by requiring physicians to receive from patients a signed disclosure form with an itemized statement of the amounts to be billed for nonemergency medical services before those services were provided.

Bills TMA Supported That Did Not Pass

Senate Bill 833 by Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) and its companion, House Bill 752 by Rep. Morgan Meyer (R-Dallas), would have protected employed physicians who act as whistleblowers against corporate employers over patient health care quality issues. The bill would have required the Texas Medical Board to investigate complaints against the entities it certifies such as nonprofit health corporations, just as it must do for licensees.

House Bill 1908 by Rep. John Zerwas, MD (R-Richmond), would have raised the age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21.

House Bill 2249 by Rep. J.D. Sheffield, DO (R-Gatesville), the "Parents' Right to Know" bill, would have required the state to report vaccination exemption-rate data at the more-precise school level rather than at the school district level.

House Bill 2760 by Rep. Greg Bonnen, MD (R-Friendswood) would have required daily updates of health plan network directories.

August 2017 Texas Medicine Contents
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Last Updated On

April 25, 2018

Originally Published On

July 19, 2017

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