H.B. No. 1941
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":
(A) means:
(i) a freestanding emergency medical care
facility licensed under Chapter 254, Health and Safety Code; or
(ii) a hospital that does not meet the
conditions of participation for certification under Title XVIII of
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Section 1395 et seq.); and
(B) does not include a hospital that:
(i) has been operating as a hospital for
less than one year;
(ii) has submitted an application to a
federally recognized accreditation program for certification under
Title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Section 1395 et
seq.); and
(iii) has not failed an accreditation for
certification.
(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 emergency rooms of hospitals
located in the same county or nearest county in which the emergency
facility is located, as applicable, 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). The consumer protection division may
not use data that includes prices for care provided in an urgent
care setting or physician practice to establish the division's
authority to investigate and pursue an action under this
subchapter.
(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.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1941 was passed by the House on May 8,
2019, by the following vote: Yeas 147, Nays 0, 1 present, not
voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
No. 1941 on May 24, 2019, by the following vote: Yeas 141, Nays 1,
2 present, not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1941 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 22, 2019, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays
1.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: __________________
Date
__________________
Governor