By: Walle H.B. No. 1907

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the establishment of a statewide all payor claims database to increase public transparency of health care data and improve quality of health care in this state.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Chapter 38, Insurance Code, is amended by adding Subchapter I to read as follows:

SUBCHAPTER I. TEXAS ALL PAYOR CLAIMS DATABASE

Sec. 38.401. PURPOSE OF SUBCHAPTER. The purpose of this subchapter is to authorize the department to establish an all payor claims database in this state to increase public transparency of health care information and improve the quality of health care in this state.

Sec. 38.402. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

(1) "Allowed amount" means the amount of a billed charge that a health benefit plan issuer determines to be covered for services provided by a non-network provider. The allowed amount includes both the insurer's payment and any applicable deductible, copayment, or coinsurance amounts for which the insured is responsible.

(2) "Center" means the Center for Healthcare Data at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

(3) "Contracted rate" means the fee or reimbursement amount for a network provider's services, treatments, or supplies as established by agreement between the provider and health benefit plan issuer.

(4) "Data" means the specific claims and encounters, enrollment, and benefit information submitted to the center under this subchapter.

(5) "Database" means the Texas All Payor Claims Database established under this subchapter.

(6) "Geozip" means an area that includes all zip codes with identical first three digits.

(7) "Payor" means any of the following entities that pay, reimburse, or otherwise contract with a health care provider for the provision of health care services, supplies, or devices to a patient:

(A) an insurance company providing health or dental insurance;

(B) the sponsor or administrator of a health or dental plan;

(C) a health maintenance organization operating under Chapter 843;

(D) the state Medicaid program, including the Medicaid managed care program operating under Chapter 533, Government Code;

(E) a health benefit plan offered or administered by or on behalf of this state or a political subdivision of this state or an agency or instrumentality of the state or a political subdivision of this state, including:

(i) a basic coverage plan under Chapter 1551;

(ii) a basic plan under Chapter 1575; and

(iii) a primary care coverage plan under Chapter 1579; or

(F) any other entity providing a health insurance or health benefit plan subject to regulation by the department.

(8) "Protected health information" has the meaning assigned by 45 C.F.R. Section 160.103.

(9) "Qualified research entity" means:

(A) an organization engaging in public interest research for the purpose of analyzing the delivery of health care in this state that is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(a), Internal Revenue Code of 1986, by being listed as an exempt organization in Section 501(c)(3) of that code;

(B) an institution of higher education engaged in public interest research related to the delivery of health care in this state; or

(C) a health care provider in this state engaging in efforts to improve the quality and cost of health care.

(10) "Stakeholder advisory group" means the stakeholder advisory group established under Section 38.403.

Sec. 38.403. STAKEHOLDER ADVISORY GROUP. (a) The center shall establish a stakeholder advisory group to assist the center as provided by this subchapter, including assistance in:

(1) establishing and updating the standards, requirements, policies, and procedures relating to the collection and use of data contained in the database required by Sections 38.404(e) and (f);

(2) evaluating and prioritizing the types of reports the center should publish under Section 38.404(e);

(3) evaluating data requests from qualified research entities under Section 38.404(e)(2); and

(4) assisting the center in developing the center's recommendations under Section 38.408(3).

(b) The advisory group created under this section must be composed of:

(1) the state Medicaid director or the director's designee;

(2) a member designated by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas;

(3) a member designated by the Employees Retirement System of Texas; and

(4) 12 members designated by the center, including:

(A) two members representing the business community, with at least one of those members representing small businesses that purchase health benefits but are not involved in the provision of health care services, supplies, or devices or health benefit plans;

(B) two members who represent consumers and who are not professionally involved in the purchase, provision, administration, or review of health care services, supplies, or devices or health benefit plans, with at least one member representing the behavioral health community;

(C) two members representing hospitals that are licensed in this state;

(D) two members representing health benefit plan issuers that are regulated by the department;

(E) two members who are physicians licensed to practice medicine in this state, one of whom is a primary care physician; and

(F) two members who are not professionally involved in the purchase, provision, administration, or review of health care services, supplies, or devices or health benefit plans and who have expertise in:

(i) health planning;

(ii) health economics;

(iii) provider quality assurance;

(iv) statistics or health data management; or

(v) medical privacy laws.

(c) A person serving on the stakeholder advisory group must disclose any conflict of interest.

(d) Members of the stakeholder advisory group serve fixed terms as prescribed by commissioner rules adopted under this subchapter.

Sec. 38.404. ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF DATABASE. (a) The department shall collaborate with the center under this subchapter to aid in the center's establishment of the database. The center shall leverage the existing resources and infrastructure of the center to establish the database to collect, process, analyze, and store data relating to medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and other relevant health care claims and encounters, enrollment, and benefit information for the purposes of increasing transparency of health care costs, utilization, and access and improving the affordability, availability, and quality of health care in this state, including by improving population health in this state.

(b) The center shall serve as the administrator of the database, design, build, and secure the database infrastructure, and determine the accuracy of the data submitted for inclusion in the database.

(c) In determining the information a payor is required to submit to the center under this subchapter, the center must consider requiring inclusion of information useful to health policy makers, employers, and consumers for purposes of improving health care quality and outcomes, improving population health, and controlling health care costs. The required information at a minimum must include the following information as it relates to all health care services, supplies, and devices paid or otherwise adjudicated by the payor:

(1) the name and National Provider Identifier, as described in 45 C.F.R. Section 162.410, of each health care provider paid by the payor;

(2) the claim line detail that documents the health care services, supplies, or devices provided by the health care provider;

(3) the amount of charges billed by the health care provider and the payor's:

(A) allowed amount or contracted rate for the health care services, supplies, or devices; and

(B) adjudicated claim amount for the health care services, supplies, or devices;

(4) the name of the payor, the name of the health benefit plan, and the type of health benefit plan, including whether health care services, supplies, or devices were provided to an individual through:

(A) a Medicaid or Medicare program;

(B) workers' compensation insurance;

(C) a health maintenance organization operating under Chapter 843;

(D) a preferred provider benefit plan offered by an insurer under Chapter 1301;

(E) a basic coverage plan under Chapter 1551;

(F) a basic plan under Chapter 1575;

(G) a primary care coverage plan under Chapter 1579; or

(H) a health benefit plan that is subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. Section 1001 et seq.); and

(5) claim level information that allows the center to identify the geozip where the health care services, supplies, or devices were provided.

(d) Each payor shall submit the required data under Subsection (c) at a schedule and frequency determined by the center and adopted by the commissioner by rule.

(e) In the manner and subject to the standards, requirements, policies, and procedures relating to the use of data contained in the database established by the center in consultation with the stakeholder advisory group, the center may use the data contained in the database for a noncommercial purpose:

(1) to produce statewide, regional, and geozip consumer reports available through the public access portal described in Section 38.405 that address:

(A) health care costs, quality, utilization, outcomes, and disparities;

(B) population health; or

(C) the availability of health care services; and

(2) for research and other analysis conducted by the center or a qualified research entity to the extent that such use is consistent with all applicable federal and state law, including the data privacy and security requirements of Section 38.406 and the purposes of this subchapter.

(f) The center shall establish data collection procedures and evaluate and update data collection procedures established under this section. The center shall test the quality of data collected by and reported to the center under this section to ensure that the data is accurate, reliable, and complete.

Sec. 38.405. PUBLIC ACCESS PORTAL. (a) Except as provided by this section and Sections 38.404 and 38.406 and in a manner consistent with all applicable federal and state law, the center shall collect, compile, and analyze data submitted to or stored in the database and disseminate the information described in Section 38.404(e)(1) in a format that allows the public to easily access and navigate the information. The information must be accessible through an open access Internet portal that may be accessed by the public through an Internet website.

(b) The portal created under this section must allow the public to easily search and retrieve the information disseminated under Subsection (a), subject to data privacy and security restrictions described in this subchapter and consistent with all applicable federal and state law.

(c) Any information or data that is accessible through the portal created under this section:

(1) must be segmented by type of insurance or health benefit plan in a manner that does not combine payment rates relating to different types of insurance or health benefit plans;

(2) must be aggregated by like Current Procedural Terminology codes and health care services in a statewide, regional, or geozip area; and

(3) may not identify a specific patient, health care provider, health benefit plan, health benefit plan issuer, or other payor.

(d) Before making information or data accessible through the portal, the center shall remove any data or information that may identify a specific patient in accordance with the de-identification standards described in 45 C.F.R. Section 164.514.

Sec. 38.406. DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY. (a) Any information that may identify a patient, health care provider, health benefit plan, health benefit plan issuer, or other payor is confidential and subject to applicable state and federal law relating to records privacy and protected health information, including Chapter 181, Health and Safety Code, and is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code.

(b) A qualified research entity with access to data or information that is contained in the database but not accessible through the portal described in Section 38.405:

(1) may use information contained in the database only for purposes consistent with the purposes of this subchapter and must use the information in accordance with standards, requirements, policies, and procedures established by the center in consultation with the stakeholder advisory group;

(2) may not sell or share any information contained in the database; and

(3) may not use the information contained in the database for a commercial purpose.

(c) A qualified research entity with access to information that is contained in the database but not accessible through the portal must execute an agreement with the center relating to the qualified research entity's compliance with the requirements of Subsections (a) and (b), including the confidentiality of information contained in the database but not accessible through the portal.

(d) Notwithstanding any provision of this subchapter, the department and the center may not disclose an individual's protected health information in violation of any state or federal law.

(e) The center shall include in the database only the minimum amount of protected health information identifiers necessary to link public and private data sources and the geographic and services data to undertake studies.

(f) The center shall maintain protected health information identifiers collected under this subchapter but excluded from the database under Subsection (e) in a separate database. The separate database may not be aggregated with any other information and must use a proxy or encrypted record identifier for analysis.

Sec. 38.407. CERTAIN ENTITIES NOT REQUIRED TO SUBMIT DATA. Any sponsor or administrator of a health benefit plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. Section 1001 et seq.) may elect or decline to participate in or submit data to the center for inclusion in the database as consistent with federal law.

Sec. 38.408. REPORT TO LEGISLATURE. Not later than September 1 of each even-numbered year, the center shall submit to the legislature a written report containing:

(1) an analysis of the data submitted to the center for use in the database;

(2) information regarding the submission of data to the center for use in the database and the maintenance, analysis, and use of the data;

(3) recommendations from the center, in consultation with the stakeholder advisory group, to further improve the transparency, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of health care in this state; and

(4) an analysis of the trends of health care affordability, availability, quality, and utilization.

Sec. 38.409. RULES. (a) The commissioner, in consultation with the center, shall adopt rules:

(1) specifying the types of data a payor is required to provide to the center under Section 38.404 to determine health benefits costs and other reporting metrics, including, if necessary, types of data not expressly identified in that section;

(2) specifying the schedule, frequency, and manner in which a payor must provide data to the center under Section 38.404, which must:

(A) require the payor to provide data to the center not less frequently than quarterly; and

(B) include provisions relating to data layout, data governance, historical data, data submission, use and sharing, information security, and privacy protection in data submissions; and

(3) establishing oversight and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that payors submit data to the database in accordance with this subchapter.

(b) In adopting rules governing methods for data submission, the commissioner shall to the maximum extent practicable use methods that are reasonable and cost-effective for payors.

SECTION 2. (a) Not later than January 1, 2022, the Center for Healthcare Data at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston shall establish the stakeholder advisory group in accordance with Section 38.403, Insurance Code, as added by this Act.

(b) Not later than June 1, 2022, the Texas Department of Insurance shall adopt rules, and the Center for Healthcare Data at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston shall adopt, in consultation with the stakeholder advisory group, standards, requirements, policies, and procedures, necessary to implement Subchapter I, Chapter 38, Insurance Code, as added by this Act.

SECTION 3. As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act, the Center for Healthcare Data at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston shall actively seek financial support from the federal grant program for development of state all payer claims databases established under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Pub. L. No. 116-260) and from any other available source of financial support provided by the federal government for purposes of implementing Subchapter I, Chapter 38, Insurance Code, as added by this Act.

SECTION 4. If before implementing any provision of Subchapter I, Chapter 38, Insurance Code, as added by this Act, the commissioner of insurance determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the commissioner shall request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted.

SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.