Bill Text: TX SB866 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to unconscionable prices charged by certain health care facilities for medical care.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-04-16 - Left pending in committee [SB866 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-SB866-Introduced.html
| 86R7717 CLG-F | ||
| By: Watson, Johnson | S.B. No. 866 | |
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| relating to unconscionable prices charged by certain health care | ||
| facilities for medical care. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Subchapter E, Chapter 17, Business & Commerce | ||
| Code, is amended by adding Section 17.464 to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 17.464. UNCONSCIONABLE PRICE FOR CARE AT EMERGENCY | ||
| FACILITY. (a) In this section: | ||
| (1) "Emergency care" means health care services | ||
| provided in an emergency facility to evaluate and stabilize medical | ||
| conditions of a recent onset and severity, including severe pain, | ||
| that would lead a prudent layperson possessing an average knowledge | ||
| of medicine and health to believe that the individual's condition, | ||
| sickness, or injury is of such a nature that failure to get | ||
| immediate medical care could: | ||
| (A) place the individual's health in serious | ||
| jeopardy; | ||
| (B) result in serious impairment to bodily | ||
| functions; | ||
| (C) result in serious dysfunction of a bodily | ||
| organ or part; | ||
| (D) result in serious disfigurement; or | ||
| (E) for a pregnant woman, result in serious | ||
| jeopardy to the health of the fetus. | ||
| (2) "Emergency facility" means a freestanding | ||
| emergency medical care facility licensed under Chapter 254, Health | ||
| and Safety Code. | ||
| (b) For purposes of Section 17.46(a), the term "false, | ||
| misleading, or deceptive acts or practices" includes an emergency | ||
| facility that: | ||
| (1) provides emergency care at an unconscionable | ||
| price; or | ||
| (2) demands or charges an unconscionable price for or | ||
| in connection with emergency care or other care at the facility. | ||
| (c) The consumer protection division may not bring an action | ||
| under Section 17.47 for an act or practice described by Subsection | ||
| (b) if the price alleged to be unconscionable is less than 200 | ||
| percent of the average charge for the same or substantially similar | ||
| care provided to other individuals by a hospital emergency room | ||
| according to data collected by the Department of State Health | ||
| Services under Chapter 108, Health and Safety Code, and made | ||
| available to the division, except as provided by Subsection (d). | ||
| (d) If the attorney general determines that the consumer | ||
| protection division is unable to obtain the charge data described | ||
| by Subsection (c), the attorney general may adopt rules designating | ||
| another source of hospital charge data for use by the division in | ||
| establishing the average charge for emergency care or other care | ||
| provided by hospital emergency rooms for purposes of Subsection | ||
| (c). | ||
| (e) In an action brought under Section 17.47 to enforce this | ||
| section, the consumer protection division may request, and the | ||
| trier of fact may award the recovery of: | ||
| (1) reasonable attorney's fees and court costs; and | ||
| (2) the reasonable expenses incurred by the division | ||
| in obtaining any remedy available under Section 17.47, including | ||
| the cost of investigation, witness fees, and deposition expenses. | ||
| (f) This section does not create a private cause of action | ||
| for a false, misleading, or deceptive act or practice described by | ||
| Subsection (b). | ||
| SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019. | ||
