86R7717 CLG-F
By: Phelan H.B. No. 1941
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to unconscionable prices charged by certain health care
facilities for medical care.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter E, Chapter 17, Business & Commerce
Code, is amended by adding Section 17.464 to read as follows:
Sec. 17.464. UNCONSCIONABLE PRICE FOR CARE AT EMERGENCY
FACILITY. (a) In this section:
(1) "Emergency care" means health care services
provided in an emergency facility to evaluate and stabilize medical
conditions of a recent onset and severity, including severe pain,
that would lead a prudent layperson possessing an average knowledge
of medicine and health to believe that the individual's condition,
sickness, or injury is of such a nature that failure to get
immediate medical care could:
(A) place the individual's health in serious
jeopardy;
(B) result in serious impairment to bodily
functions;
(C) result in serious dysfunction of a bodily
organ or part;
(D) result in serious disfigurement; or
(E) for a pregnant woman, result in serious
jeopardy to the health of the fetus.
(2) "Emergency facility" means a freestanding
emergency medical care facility licensed under Chapter 254, Health
and Safety Code.
(b) For purposes of Section 17.46(a), the term "false,
misleading, or deceptive acts or practices" includes an emergency
facility that:
(1) provides emergency care at an unconscionable
price; or
(2) demands or charges an unconscionable price for or
in connection with emergency care or other care at the facility.
(c) The consumer protection division may not bring an action
under Section 17.47 for an act or practice described by Subsection
(b) if the price alleged to be unconscionable is less than 200
percent of the average charge for the same or substantially similar
care provided to other individuals by a hospital emergency room
according to data collected by the Department of State Health
Services under Chapter 108, Health and Safety Code, and made
available to the division, except as provided by Subsection (d).
(d) If the attorney general determines that the consumer
protection division is unable to obtain the charge data described
by Subsection (c), the attorney general may adopt rules designating
another source of hospital charge data for use by the division in
establishing the average charge for emergency care or other care
provided by hospital emergency rooms for purposes of Subsection
(c).
(e) In an action brought under Section 17.47 to enforce this
section, the consumer protection division may request, and the
trier of fact may award the recovery of:
(1) reasonable attorney's fees and court costs; and
(2) the reasonable expenses incurred by the division
in obtaining any remedy available under Section 17.47, including
the cost of investigation, witness fees, and deposition expenses.
(f) This section does not create a private cause of action
for a false, misleading, or deceptive act or practice described by
Subsection (b).
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.