BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1342

By: Leach

Pensions, Investments & Financial Services

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Certain independent school districts participating in TRS-ActiveCare that desire to solicit bids for new health insurance providers have reported having a hard time obtaining accurate cost comparisons due to a lack of available information from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS). C.S.H.B. 1342 seeks to remedy this issue by requiring TRS to provide any de‑identified health information, enrollment information, or other available relevant information on request in connection with a search for alternative health benefit plan coverage.

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 this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1342 amends the Insurance Code to require the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) to provide to an entity that participates in TRS-ActiveCare any de-identified health information, enrollment information, or other relevant information available to TRS as requested by the entity in connection with a search for alternative health benefit plan coverage for the entity's employees and the employees' dependents. The bill prohibits TRS from including any personally identifying information of a covered individual that would be prohibited from disclosure under HIPAA. The bill requires TRS to provide the requested information at no cost to the requesting entity, in accordance with procedures TRS develops for that purpose.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2021.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1342 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute does not include historical claims data, nor the requirement for specified information for each tier of group coverage to be part of that data, among the information TRS must provide on request but includes instead de-identified health information.

The substitute clarifies that the identifying information TRS may not disclosure is information prohibited from disclosure under HIPAA.

The substitute requires TRS to develop procedures for providing the information at no cost to the requestor.