|
House Bill 2090 |
House Author: Burrows et al. |
|
Effective: 9-1-21 |
Senate Sponsor: Hancock |
House Bill 2090 amends the Insurance Code to provide for the establishment and administration of a statewide all payor claims database by the Center for Healthcare Data at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston for the purpose of increasing public transparency of health care information and improving the quality of health care in Texas. The database will include information relating to medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and other relevant health care claims and encounters, enrollment, and benefit information. The bill requires the Texas Department of Insurance to aid in the center's establishment of the database and provides for the establishment of a stakeholder advisory group to assist the center. Among other provisions relating to the database, the bill provides for a public access portal that allows the public to easily access and navigate information in the database.
House Bill 2090 also sets out provisions regarding health care cost transparency. Under those provisions, a health benefit plan issuer or administrator must provide to the enrollee, on request, cost‑sharing information for a specific preventive or non‑preventive health care service or supply. The bill requires an issuer or administrator to provide this disclosure through an Internet‑based self‑service tool, a physical copy, or other means of disclosure as authorized by the bill. In addition, the bill requires an issuer or administrator to publish on a website a network rate machine‑readable file, an out‑of‑network allowed amount machine‑readable file, and a prescription drug machine‑readable file. The bill specifies the information that must be included in those files and provides the following:
· the files must be available and accessible to any person free of charge and without conditions;
· the files must be updated monthly with a clear indication of the date of the most recent update; and
· an issuer or administrator may contract with another person to provide the files.