BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1641

By: Button

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been noted that the Healthy Texas Women program provides health services and family planning at no cost to certain eligible women in Texas beyond the postpartum period. Given recent reports on statewide trends in maternal death and morbidity, which identify a need to increase access to these health services during the year after pregnancy and throughout the interconception period to improve outcomes and better facilitate continuity of care, there are calls to better inform eligible women of the program's services. H.B. 1641 seeks to address this issue by requiring the provision of certain program-related information to women at the time of their automatic enrollment in the program following a pregnancy. 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission in SECTION 2 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1641 amends the Government Code to require the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to provide, at the time a woman is enrolled in the Healthy Texas Women program, to a woman who is automatically enrolled in the program following a pregnancy for which the woman received Medicaid, but who is no longer eligible to participate in Medicaid, information about the Healthy Texas Women program, including information about the services provided under the program, and a list of health care providers who participate in the program and are located in the same geographical area in which the woman resides. The bill requires the executive commissioner of HHSC to adopt rules necessary to implement its provisions. The bill applies only to a woman automatically enrolled in the Healthy Texas Women program on or after January 1, 2020.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2019.