Subscribe to receive our Floor Reports covering all the action on the Texas House and Senate floor!
Relating to health benefit plan provider networks; providing an administrative penalty; authorizing an assessment.
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
HB 1880 would require physicians and health care providers to maintain a directory of health care providers and their specialties. These directors would be updated by deadlines specified in the bill. In addition, the bill would also require providers to make the directory public and conspicuous while also logging reported mistakes in the directory.
Health benefit plan issuers would be required to update their directory to reflect a change in a physician's or provider's network participation status not later than two business days after the effective date of the change.
If the termination of a physician's or health care provider's contract was not at the request of the physician or health care provider, the health benefit provider would be required to update the directory to reflect the change not later than two business days after the later of the date of a formal recommendation or the effective date of the termination. A system for an individual to report an inaccuracy would be required. The bill prescribes methods for handling inaccurate information and creating and maintaining a log that records all reports regarding inaccurate network directories or listings.
Network adequacy examinations would be performed by the Texas Department of Insurance. The insurer examined would be required to pay the costs of the examination in an amount to be determined by the commissioner. The bill does not place a cap on this fee.
Note that this is a summary of some major provisions of the bill, not a comprehensive section by section analysis. For more detail on the amount of new regulation contained in this bill we recommend reading the bill.