BILL ANALYSIS
By: Farabee
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Currently, many private insurance policies do not provide coverage for a child’s mental illness
that is comparable to the coverage provided for a physical illness.
C.S.H.B. 510 requires certain private health benefit plans to provide a level of health care coverage for the mental health of a child
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 1355.001(1), Insurance Code, by adding anorexia nervosa and
bulimia nervosa to the definition of serious mental illness.
SECTION 2. Amends Section 1355.007, Insurance Code, SMALL EMPLOYER COVERAGE
by adding Subsection (b). (b) Requires that regardless of whether a small employer accepts the coverage required by Subsection (a), an issuer of a group health benefit plan to a small employer must provide coverage for persons under the age of 19 for depression in childhood and adolescence and anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The issuer must provide coverage required by Section 1355.004, Insurance Code.
SECTION 3. (a) States that the Sunset Advisory Commission, on or before September 1, 2012, shall conduct a study to determine the what extent the health benefit plan coverage required by the change in law is being used by enrollees in health benefit plans and the impact of the required coverage on the cost of those health benefit plans. (b) States that the Sunset Advisory Commission shall report its finding under this section to the legislature on or before January 1, 2013. (c) State that the Texas Department of Insurance and any other state agency shall cooperate with the Sunset Advisory Commission as necessary to implement this section.
SECTION 4. This Act applies only to a health benefit plan delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 2008. A health benefit plan delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed before January 1, 2008, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 5. Effective date: September 1, 2007.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2007.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
Whereas the original created a new subchapter, Subchapter F, in Chapter 1367 of the Insurance Code relating to certain mental disorders in children, the substitute merely amends Section 1355.001(1) and Section 1355.007 of the Insurance Code. Thus, the exact provisions found in the added subchapter of the original house bill are not in the substitute.
Section 1355.001(1) is amended to add anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa to the definition of serious mental illness.
The substitute, in SECTION 2, also amends Section 1355.007 of the Insurance Code relating to Small Employer Coverage. The substitute requires that regardless of whether a small employer accepts the coverage required by Subsection (a), an issuer of a group health benefit plan to a small employer must provide coverage for persons under the age of 19 for depression in childhood and adolescence and anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The issuer must provide coverage required by Section 1355.004, Insurance Code.