H.B. No. 103

AN ACT

relating to health benefit plans for students at institutions of higher education and the operation of certain health benefit plans through student health centers at certain institutions of higher education.

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

SECTION 1. The heading to Section 51.952, Education Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 51.952. STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE AT MEDICAL AND DENTAL UNITS.

SECTION 2. Subchapter Z, Chapter 51, Education Code, is amended by adding Section 51.9521 to read as follows:

Sec. 51.9521. STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE AT GENERAL ACADEMIC TEACHING INSTITUTIONS. (a) In this section:

(1) "Health benefit plan" means any health benefit plan regulated under the Insurance Code, including:

(A) an individual, group, or blanket health insurance policy; or

(B) an evidence of coverage issued by a health maintenance organization.

(2) "High deductible health plan" has the meaning assigned by Section 223, Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

(3) "General academic teaching institution" and "university system" have the meanings assigned by Section 61.003.

(b) A general academic teaching institution with a total student enrollment of more than 20,000 students in one or more semesters of the preceding academic year shall offer or sponsor, directly or through the university system, if any, of which the institution is a component, one or more health benefit plans for the students of the institution. At least one health benefit plan offered under this section must be a high deductible health plan.

(c) When offering the health benefit plan to students, the institution shall collect information from each student that declines to accept the coverage offered through the institution, including whether the decision to decline coverage was as a result of:

(1) the student's existing health benefit plan coverage from another source;

(2) the cost of the health benefit plan;

(3) the type of health benefit plan offered by the institution; or

(4) the student not desiring a health benefit plan at that time.

(d) Data collected by the institution may be provided to the public in the aggregate.

SECTION 3. The heading to Section 51.953, Education Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 51.953. [CERTAIN REVENUE RECEIVED FROM] STUDENT HEALTH CENTER [SERVICES].

SECTION 4. Section 51.953, Education Code, is amended by adding Subsections (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), and (h) to read as follows:

(c) A student health center of an institution of higher education with a total student enrollment of more than 20,000 students in one or more semesters of the preceding academic year shall assist a student or other person entitled to obtain health care services through the health center in receiving benefits under a health benefit plan in which the student or other person is an enrollee by filing or having a claim filed with the issuer of the health benefit plan on behalf of the student or other person. The institution may contract with a third-party billing service to provide the assistance required by this subsection.

(d) An institution of higher education, on behalf of the institution's student health center, may contract with a health benefit plan issuer that engages in the business of insurance in the health service region established by the Department of State Health Services in which the institution is located to provide a health benefit plan under which health care services are provided to students or other persons entitled to obtain health care services through the student health center who are covered by the plan.

(e) An institution of higher education described by Subsection (c) must enter into contracts with at least three of the largest health benefit plan issuers that engage in the business of insurance in the health service region established by the Department of State Health Services in which the institution is located under which the institution's student health center:

(1) serves as a preferred provider under the preferred provider benefit plans operated by the issuers; or

(2) operates as a provider of in-network coverage under the health maintenance organizations operated by the issuers.

(f) An institution of higher education may authorize the institution's student health center to accept a student's medical services fee, as charged by the institution under Chapter 54, as payment toward:

(1) a copayment;

(2) a deductible; or

(3) a charge for a service not covered by the student's health benefit plan.

(g) Money received by the student health center as a result of a claim filed by or on behalf of a student through a health benefit plan shall be retained for use by the student health center.

(h) Not later than January 15 of each year, the governing board of an institution of higher education described by Subsection (c) shall report to the legislature the amount of the following sources of income for funding the institution's student health center:

(1) money received from student fees and charges;

(2) money received from the operation of the student health center's pharmacy;

(3) money received as a result of a claim filed by or on behalf of the institution's student health center under a health benefit plan sponsored by or administered on behalf of the institution; and

(4) money received as a result of a claim filed by or on behalf of the institution's student health center under a health benefit plan other than a plan sponsored by or administered on behalf of the institution.

SECTION 5. Section 51.9521, Education Code, as added by this Act, applies beginning with the 2010 fall semester.

SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.

______________________________ ______________________________

President of the Senate Speaker of the House

I certify that H.B. No. 103 was passed by the House on May 13, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 143, Nays 4, 1 present, not voting; that the House refused to concur in Senate amendments to H.B. No. 103 on May 29, 2009, and requested the appointment of a conference committee to consider the differences between the two houses; and that the House adopted the conference committee report on H.B. No. 103 on May 31, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 139, Nays 5, 2 present, not voting.

______________________________ Chief Clerk of the House

I certify that H.B. No. 103 was passed by the Senate, with amendments, on May 27, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 27, Nays 4; at the request of the House, the Senate appointed a conference committee to consider the differences between the two houses; and that the Senate adopted the conference committee report on H.B. No. 103 on May 31, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 27, Nays 4.

______________________________ Secretary of the Senate APPROVED: __________________

Date

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Governor