Texas Legislative UpdateJune 2022
Dear TCEP Member, The legislature is currently in their interim period between legislative sessions until the next one starts on January 10, 2023. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) and House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) have released interim charges for members of their respective chambers to study and address in preparation for the next legislative session. This means that interim committees will convene sporadically through most of the summer, increasing in frequency in the fall and winter, to hear testimony and debate policy issues before issuing their reports to the 2023 legislature. Of note this year, Speaker Phelan announced the creation of a House Select Committee on Health Care Reform chaired by Rep. Sam Harless (R-Spring), an unusual but welcome development for TCEP advocacy efforts. This committee is charged with issues including identifying cost savings, improving future procurements and creating better transparency and oversight of Medicaid IT contracts. TCEP will actively participate with the committee members (with a focus on the committee’s two physicians, Rep. Greg Bonnen, MD (R-League City) and Rep. Tom Oliverson, MD (R-Houston)) to ensure that emergency medicine policy priorities are reflected in the recommendations in the committee report. The House Insurance Committee met for the first time this interim over two-days in May. The purpose of the hearings was to monitor implementation of legislation passed in 2021 and to begin their study of the impacts of the federal No Surprises Act (NSA) and how it will interact with the state’s dispute resolution process created in 2019. One focus of the committee is overseeing state agencies that will spend significant time during this interim period implementing laws that have been passed previously into the regulatory structure through rulemaking. In 2022, this will include new rules on preauthorization and utilization review, telemedicine, and balance billing reforms, among others. The committee’s agenda provided an opportunity for TCEP’s Treasurer, Dr. Doug Jeffrey, to testify on behalf of the house of medicine regarding Senate Bill 1264, Texas’ dispute resolution legislation. Dr. Jeffrey did an excellent job representing the interests of providers and solidifying the need to continue the state IDR process and ignore calls (from the health plans and their allies) to fold the state process into the Federal No Surprises Act. Senate Bill 1264, passed in the 2019 legislative session, is the product of careful negotiation, passing with support from all major stakeholders including TCEP and other physicians, hospitals, health plans and consumers. Also included in the committee’s discussion was HB 3459, the legislation that implements preauthorization requirements for certain health care services and utilization review for certain health benefit plans. We will continue to monitor these developments closely on behalf of TCEP members. The 2022 Texas Elections are officially underway. The election season has three important components to be aware of this year: the previously held March 1 Primary Elections; the May 24th Primary Runoff Elections; and the November 8 General Elections. The May Primary Runoff Elections determined the final ballot makeup for the November 2022 General elections. The results of the May 24th Primary runoff election can be found here. The state legislature completed the redistricting process in 2021, so most legislative offices will be on the ballot this cycle and running in redesigned districts. 150 State Representatives, 38 U.S. Representatives, 31 State Senators, 6 Texas constitutional executive offices, 3 Texas Supreme Court Justices, 3 judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and 1 Texas Railroad Commissioner are up for election in 2022. The high number of offices on the ballot are coupled with the fact that there will be at least 32 new state legislators due to retirements or current members seeking higher office. That means that more than 20 percent of the state legislature will be comprised of freshmen legislators spread across the House and Senate. There is not currently a high likelihood of major changes to the current partisan makeup of the Texas Legislature for 2023. If anything, the 88th Texas Legislature could be more conservative than the 87th session. As always, our lobbyists at Imperium Public Affairs are working tirelessly on your behalf in Austin, and cannot continue to engage powerfully without support from members like you. Please donate to EMPACT so that TCEP can continue making an impact to the legislature. We also want to hear from you when you have questions or feedback. You, our frontline physicians, are important team members in our efforts to gain government-level support of the practice of emergency medicine and the patients who rely on us to deliver the best care possible. Thank you for all that you do. Please reach out to Beth Brooks ([email protected]) with any questions or comments. Sincerely, Theresa Q. Tran, MD, MBA, FACEP |
