TAHU Weekly News Updates from the Capitol...

On Wednesday, TAHU submitted its formal written comments to the Texas Medical Board, voicing concerns about the proposed rules’ failure to disclose to consumer that balance billing is now officially BANNED unless a consumer agrees in advance to be balance billed after the amount of that bill is revealed. In addition, the rules treated a narrow exception designed for minimal use as the new, acceptable way to balance bill patients without telling them the practice has been banned by the legislature.  Last Thursday, this Editorial ran in the Dallas Morning News, summarizing the surprise billing journey so far and taking a critical position of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) and their proposed rules which were scheduled to be debated on Friday, December 6th. The Houston Chronicle had previously published a similar article.  On Friday morning at 8:00 am, Dr. Zaafran called the Texas Medical Board hearing to order and immediately brought up the item on the Proposed Rules on Out of Network Billing out of order from the published Agenda (ie. the Ban on Surprise Billing). Comments were made indicating that because the TMB doesn’t regulate all of the potential balance billers who need to be regulated by the new law, their proposed rules probably don’t go far enough and wouldn’t be consistent to regulate everyone who could violate the rule - only about 75% of them. They should therefore defer the rule writing to an agency who could regulate every potential balance biller with the same rules and form. The TMB then formally withdrew their proposed rule and moved on to other business. While the stated reason may or may not accurately describe why TMB pulled down their rules, it’s correct that they don’t regulate every possible biller. The question now arises: which agency should write those rules? Most of the lobbyists in attendance think it will be pushed over to the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). However, TDI would need a MOU (Memo of Understanding) between TMB and HHSC in order to gain the statutory authority to effectively regulate 100% of the possible balance billers. The Attorney General’s office, however, already has jurisdiction over every Texan and might be the better regulating authority. We will continue conversations with folks at both agencies to see where this lands. Because the rules go into effect on claims starting January 1st, we think we will see a potential solution to this problem proposed very quickly. Score this a HUGE win for TAHU and all insurance consumers across Texas!  Questions? Contact your TAHU lobbyists at:

Mike Meroney                                                     
Shannon Meroney
512-499-8880 (office) 
512-731-6615 (Shannon’s mobile) Shannon@MeroneyPublicAffairs.com
512-589-2531 (Mike’s mobile) Mike@MeroneyPublicAffairs.com