By: Hancock, Whitmire S.B. No. 999
(In the Senate - Filed March 4, 2021; March 18, 2021, read
first time and referred to Committee on Business & Commerce;
April 19, 2021, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 19, 2021,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 999 By: Hancock
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to county and municipal authority and a study regarding
certain medical and health care billing by ambulance service
providers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 113.902(a), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) Except as provided by Section 140.013, the [The] county
treasurer shall direct prosecution for the recovery of any debt
owed to the county, as provided by law, and shall supervise the
collection of the debt.
SECTION 2. Chapter 140, Local Government Code, is amended
by adding Section 140.013 to read as follows:
Sec. 140.013. BALANCE BILLING FOR COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL
AMBULANCE SERVICES. (a) "Balance billing" means the practice of
charging an enrollee in a health benefit plan to recover from the
enrollee the balance of a health care provider's fee for a service
received by the enrollee from the health care provider that is not
fully reimbursed by the enrollee's health benefit plan.
(b) A county or municipality may elect to consider a health
benefit plan payment towards a claim for air or ground ambulance
services provided by the county or municipality as payment in full
for those services regardless of the amount the county or
municipality charged for those services.
(c) A county or municipality may not practice balance
billing for a claim for which the county or municipality makes an
election under Subsection (b).
SECTION 3. (a) In this section, "department" means the
Texas Department of Insurance.
(b) The department shall conduct a study on the balance
billing practices of county and municipal ground ambulance service
providers and the variations in prices for county and municipal
ground ambulance services.
(c) Not later than December 1, 2022, the department shall
provide a written report of the results of the study conducted under
Subsection (b) of this section to the governor, lieutenant
governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and members of
the standing committees of the legislature with primary
jurisdiction over the department.
(d) This section expires September 1, 2023.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
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