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This bill would do one or more of the following: create or recreate a dedicated account in the General Revenue Fund, create or recreate a special or trust fund either with or outside of the Treasury, or create a dedicated revenue source. The fund, account, or revenue dedication included in this bill would be subject to funds consolidation review by the current Legislature.
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Under current law, penalties and interest collected through Sections 843.342 (m) and 1301.137 (l) of the Insurance Code are collected by the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool and transferred to the credit of the General Revenue Fund.
The bill would amend Section 843.342 and 1301.137 of the Insurance Code by directing penalties paid by non-institutional providers to be paid back to the physician, provider, or preferred provider by the health maintenance organization (HMO) or the insurer, except for any interest computed in the statutes. The interest revenue would be required to be paid to the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) to be distributed to the Healthy Texas Premium Stabilization Fund (Healthy Texas Fund) and be used for any purpose authorized by rule by the Commissioner of Insurance to improve access to health benefit coverage.
The bill
would amend Section 843.342 and 1301.137 of the Insurance Code by directing 50
percent of penalties collected from institutional providers, including
interest, to be distributed to the Healthy Texas Fund and would only be
authorized to be appropriated to the Health and Human Services Commission
(HHSC) to be used as follows:
Any penalties relating to clean claims submitted
by institutional providers that were paid under Section 843.342 (m) or 1301.137
(l) of the Insurance Code, before the effective date of this Act, and that
remain unexpended and unobligated on the effective date of this Act, would be
required to be used to provide grants to hospitals in Texas to upgrade the
hospitals’ emergency rooms and trauma facilities. The Commissioner of Insurance would be required to adopt rules governing
the distribution of these grants and distribute all the funds by September 1,
2017.
This bill takes money from the state High Risk Pool and gives it to the Healthy Texans Fund. Our objection is not necessarily with the practical purpose of the bill, but that it subtracts revenue from the High Risk Pool to finance the Healthy Texans Fund.
It is ill-advised to make a decision before the King v. Burwell case is decided this summer. Until then, we oppose legislation such as HB 3006.