CAPITOL UPDATE: Senate passes TAFP’s instant verification of benefits bill

With less than three weeks left before the end of the session, the action is really heating up at the Capitol. Hundreds of bills died yesterday when the clock struck midnight, marking the deadline for House bills to be passed by the House. Two of TAFP’s most important initiatives survived that deadline.

On Thursday, May 14, the Texas Senate voted unanimously to pass TAFP’s instant verification of benefits bill, House Bill 1342 by Representative Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, and Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington. The bill would require health plans to provide information to physicians at the point of care about what services are covered, the amount of the patient’s co-pay and deductible and what the patient’s out-of-pocket costs will be for services provided.

To read more about the bill and the problems that drove TAFP to pursue this legislation, check out the cover story of the latest issue of TEXAS FAMILY PHYSICIAN.

An agreed-to amendment was added to the bill, which was acceptable to Rep. Menendez. That means the bill will forego a conference committee and should get a quick approval from the House before heading to the governor’s desk.

House passes physician loan repayment measure

On Wednesday, just two days before a critical legislative deadline, the Texas House voted to launch an innovative, robust loan repayment program designed to entice newly graduated primary care physicians to practice in health professional shortage areas across the state. Passing by a 79-61 margin, the bill would change the way the state applies the excise tax—or sin tax—to smokeless tobacco, raising an estimated $90 million over the biennium to fund the new loan repayment program.

Currently the state bases the excise tax on smokeless tobacco products on the manufacturer’s list price, so that less expensive products pay less for the harm they cause society than more expensive products. Under the measure passed by the House, the excise tax would be based on weight instead of cost, bringing the method of applying excise tax in line with the way the state taxes cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline.

Powerful interests including a well-funded contingent of tobacco lobbyists have succeeded in stalling TAFP’s loan repayment bill, House Bill 1876 by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, killing the bill in the Calendars Committee. According to a recent story in the Dallas Morning News, “tobacco interests have retained 40 lobbyists this session—including seven former lawmakers—to influence proposals to limit cigarettes and change taxes on smokeless tobacco.”

In a deft maneuver, Rep. Chisum reworked the bill as an amendment and attempted to attach it to another loan repayment bill, H.B. 2154 by Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston. After two days of postponements and several points of order, lawmakers finally began to debate the measure on the floor Tuesday, May 12. When a successful point of order finally killed Chisum’s amendment, Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, took up the charge, filing an amendment of his own that contained a remedy to the parliamentary problem with the previous version. That amendment was approved and House members then gave tentative approval to the amended bill.

On Wednesday, after yet another point of order was raised against the bill and subsequently withdrawn, the physician loan repayment bill prevailed. It’s now headed to the Senate where the battle will most certainly be rejoined.

Thanks to the Physicians of the Day

Thank you to the physicians who volunteered as Physicians of the Day this week: J. Mike White, M.D., of Cleburne; Erica Swegler, M.D., of Keller; Daniel Voss, M.D., of Georgetown; Christopher Crow, M.D., of Plano; and Gary Mennie, M.D., of Port Arthur.