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House Business & Industry met on April 13 to take up a number of bills. This report covers conversations concerning HB 4045 (Martinez), HB 3745 (Capriglione), HB 3746 (Capriglione), HB 145 (Rodriguez et al.), and HB 2942 (Bernal). Part one of the hearing can be found here and part two can be found here.

 

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

HB 4045 (Martinez) – Relating to the cost, payment, and collection of health care expenses

  • Limits on billing/collections actions; including price transparency
  • Limits charging high interest on the debt and bringing lawsuits within 180 days of the bill
  • Limits extraordinary collection actions; caps interest rates on medical debt
  • Requires itemized billing
  • Notes they have a committee substitute, but it is not brought up in committee

 

Jonathan Lewis, Every Texan – For

  • Billing and collections are often confusing and can cause families to not seek medical care
  • Bill brackets limits to exclude elective and cosmetic procedures
  • Over 20 Texas hospitals pursued patient lawsuit in recent years; some of which for medical debt
  • Aggressive lawsuits only recoup a very small portion of hospital revenue
  • Medical debt is so prevalent, there are nonprofits that are founded for the purpose of buying/forgiving it

 

Elizabeth Colvin, RAISE Texas – For

  • Medical debt is often astronomical
  • Legislation gives patients the ability to understand what they need to pay for and what can be paid by insurance
  • Also allows them to figure out a financial plan to pay their bills

HB 4045 left pending

 

HB 3745 (Capriglione) (CS) – Relating to prohibitions in connection with event ticket sales or resales on an Internet website and with the online sale of goods

  • Capriglione – Addresses the problem of bots buying up goods on the internet before the public can; bots can function like ticket scalpers
  • Prohibit individuals of using bots to purchase/resale of tickets and other online goods
  • Prohibits the disguise of the identity of the purchaser and purchasing tickets that exceed the maximum number of tickets that can be sold
  • If the induvial violates the law, AG can investigate the claim

HB 3745 left pending

 

HB 3746 (Capriglione) – Relating to certain notifications required following a breach of security of computerized data

  • Data breaches occur every day, a large majority of individuals have been affected by a breach
  • Since 4390 was passed, 31 million Texans have been affected by a data breach of their PII
  • Would require Attorney General’s office to make the data breach database publicly accessible
  • Also requires disclosure of the number of victims that have been notified of said data breach

 

Troy Alexander, Texas Medical Association – Neutral

  • Registered, but not present to testify

 

Rep. Capriglione – Closing

  • The goal of this is to allow individuals to check a website in order to check if their information has been breached

HB 3746 left pending

 

HB 2942 (Bernal) – Relating to investigations and actions by district or county attorneys in connection with the deceptive trade practice of charging exorbitant or excessive prices for necessities during a declared disaster

  • Bernal – Submitted several instances of price gouging for lodging to the AG, he is investigating one of them
  • Problem that is that the AG has a bandwidth issue, so they can’t possibly prosecute or investigate all of the price gouging situations during an emergency
  • The aim of the bill provides jurisdiction to county and district attorneys to do the same

 

Randy Chapman, Self – For

  • Victim of price gouging during the winter storm
  • Gives an anecdote of how difficult it was for him to find a plumber that charges decently during the winter storm
  • Recommends including funds to go through the Chief Justice Jack Pope Act, provides required funding for civil legal services
  • Emphasizes mimicking the language of the first page of the bill, that says the funds could be used for basic civil legal services

 

Rep. Bernal

  • To clarify, this does not take any jurisdiction away from the AG’s office, just adds jurisdiction to county and DAs

HB 2942 left pending

 

HB 145 (Rodriguez et al.) – Relating to removing the waiting period for unemployment benefit eligibility

  • Rodriguez – Bill just seeks to codify Governor Abbott’s actions in reference to him suspending the waiting week in response to COVID-19 for Texas workers on a permanent basis
  • Turner – And there is no conformity issues with the Department of Labor or any federal laws?
  • Correct
  • Lambert – Could you talk a bit more about the fiscal note?
  • No, I do not think I can right now; I will get back to you on that

 

Jonathan Lewis, Every Texan – For

  • 1 in 5 claimants do not receive this waiting week stated in the bill
  • Purpose of UI is to provide replacement for loss wages, not to drive workers into deeper financial crises
  • Need to make sure claimants are getting all the money they are eligible for

 

René Lara, Texas AFL CIO – For

  • This bill makes the waived waiting period law, so workers don’t have to run into an administrative, bureaucratic law making it harder for them to get what they are eligible for

 

Chris Oakley, Texas Workforce Commission, Resource Witness – For

  • Lambert – Would you mind elaborating a bit on what the fiscal note is and the impact?
  • Referring to 2017-2019 data, 1 in 5 claimants do not receive this waiting week stated in the bill
  • Lambert – But as you read the bill there would not be any additional impact on employers and businesses, if this bill is passed?
  • There would be additional payments made out
  • Turner – No impact of general revenue, this is an impact to Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund?
  • Yes, there was a minimal impact of IT programming – but can be absorbed within existing programs
  • Turner – What is the negative impact, generally speaking, of the unemployment trust fund?
  • Unemployment benefits are paid out of the trust fund, so if we calculate 20% additional payments – that is where we came up with the total amount, would be $295 million over a 5-year period
  • Lambert – There is no federal dollars coming in to help reimburse or provide relief to unemployment insurance programs, correct?
  • Correct, under the CARES ACT provisions there are federal dollars available; bill looks beyond that

HB 145 left pending