| TO: | Honorable Lois W. Kolkhorst, Chair, House Committee on Public Health |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB3234 by Davis, John (Relating to telehealth services and home telemonitoring services provided to certain Medicaid recipients.), As Introduced |
SECTION 5- The bill would add a new Sec. 531.02164 establishing a statewide home telemonitoring service benefit in Medicaid. This service would only be available to Medicaid recipients with specific conditions and risk factors specified in statute. Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) indicates that current federal regulations require a nurse to be present in the client’s residence when home health services are provided (42 CFR 440.70).
SECTION 6- The bill would amend Sec. 531.02171 regarding telemedicine pilots to add the service of monitoring of chronic conditions and add three additional health conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and congestive heart failure. The addition of the new conditions would also apply to the expansion of home telemonitoring service in SECTION 5.
This estimate assumes no significant fiscal impact to HHSC as a result of adding home telemonitoring and the three additional health conditions to the types of telemedicine pilots HHSC may pursue.
To the extent that this section impacts who would be eligible for the new statewide home telemonitoring services established in SECTION 5, the addition of the three new conditions is assumed to result in additional costs for the new service to this client group.
To some extent, additional service costs would likely be offset by savings in client services as a result of avoidance of more costly care for recipients with the conditions added by the bill. HHSC does not have claims experience with home telemonitoring sufficient to estimate those costs and savings.
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Local units of government operating public hospitals and clinics enrolled as Medicaid providers could see increased revenue from telemedicine and telehealth provider payments.
| Source Agencies: | 529 Health and Human Services Commission
|
| LBB Staff: | JOB, CL, PP, MB
|