• Senate Bill 379  (Middleton | SP: Gerdes) prohibits the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds on candy and sweetened drinks.

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• Senate Bill 493  (Kolkhorst | SP: Wharton) prohibits pharmacy benefit managers from implementing "gag clauses" that would restrict pharmacists from informing patients if paying out-of-pocket for a prescription would be less expensive than the insured's co-pay.

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• House Bill 1314 (Hickland, et al. | SP: Hughes) requires a designated medical facility, upon the request of a consumer with a medical order, to e-mail an estimate of the expected billed charges for a non-emergency elective service within five business days. A facility’s estimate must include information regarding how a consumer may dispute a charge that exceeds the estimate by $400 or more. A facility that violates the bill’s provisions may not take adverse action against the consumer (e.g., initiating third-party collections or reporting the consumer to a credit bureau).

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• Senate Bill 331  (Kolkhorst | SP: Frank) expands healthcare price transparency disclosures that were implemented in 2021 but limited to hospitals. The bill requires price disclosures by freestanding emergency rooms, ambulatory surgical facilities, chemical dependency treatment facilities, and others.

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• Senate Bill 1188 (Kolkhorst | SP: Bonnen, et al.) requires health care practitioners to store electronic health information at a location within the U.S., provides clarification on the permitted role of artificial intelligence in diagnosing a patient based on these records, ensures parents can access their children’s health records, and requires health records to state the patient’s biological sex.

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• House Bill 4535 (McQueeney, et al. | SP: Hancock) requires healthcare providers to obtain written informed consent from the individual or parent/guardian for a minor patient prior to administering a COVID-19 vaccination. Informed consent would require disclosures on the benefits and risks associated with the COVID-19 vaccination, details on the expedited development process of the vaccine, whether long-term scientific studies on COVID-19 vaccines have been conducted, clarification on the civil liability status of vaccine manufacturers, and instructions for reporting adverse events to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

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• Senate Bill 269 (Perry | SP: Frank, et al.) requires physicians to report any adverse events from experimental or emergency use vaccines to VAERS and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s MedWatch to ensure more consistent reporting of adverse events.

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• House Bill 4076 (Leach, et al. | SP: Kolkhorst) prohibits a physician from declining to place an individual on an organ transplant list solely based on the individual’s vaccination status.

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• House Bill 26 (Hull, et al. | SP: Kolkhorst) permits Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) to offer nutritional counseling and instruction services to Medicaid clients in lieu of other services if those services are medically appropriate and cost-effective.

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• House Bill 138  (Dean, et al. | SP: Bettencourt) allows the Legislature to obtain a comprehensive analysis of a proposed health care mandate, providing a thorough assessment of costs to the state, health plans, and consumers. The analysis will also evaluate the perceived need for the proposed mandate and the anticipated economic benefit of the proposed mandate, particularly as compared to the status quo of the marketplace. The analysis resembles the concept of the fiscal impact analysis the state already uses for legislation with a financial effect on government entities. HB 138 will reach beyond the government entity context and shed light on costs that drive up the cost of health insurance for a huge number of Texans.

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• House Bill 541  (Shaheen | SP: Blanco, et al.) allows an individual to access direct health care from a health care practitioner without the involvement of an insurer (not just from a physician, as was previously the case). Practitioners must hold a license or authorization issued under the Occupations Code that permits them to engage in the health care profession.

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• House Bill 1612 (Frank | SP: Kolkhorst) permits an uninsured patient, upon request, to directly pay a hospital for health care services an amount that is no more than the greater of 125 percent of the amount generally billed for that service, or 150 percent of the lowest contracted rate for that service that the hospital has agreed to accept from a health benefit plan other than Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare.

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• House Bill 4099 (Harris Davila, et al. | SP: Perry) extends the period during which an individual may see a physical therapist without a referral to 30 days, improving access and removing barriers to care.

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• House Bill 4224 (Hull, et al. | SP: Kolkhorst) requires health care providers to post on their websites and at their facilities instructions on how a consumer can request health care records or file a consumer complaint.

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• Senate Bill 984  (Bettencourt | SP: King) expands the "right to try" statute which allows patients to obtain experimental treatments for serious health conditions to include personalized treatment based on the patient’s genetics. The bill clarifies which patients are eligible for those treatments, the standards for informed consent, and limitations on liability for the manufactures of the experimental treatment.

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• Senate Bill 1330 (Hancock | SP: Paul) closes a loophole sometimes abused by providers of durable medical equipment (DME) that are not participating suppliers in Medicare but provide DME to Medicare enrollees at inflated prices. The bill provides that these non-participating suppliers of DME cannot charge a Medicare enrollee more than 115 percent of the Medicare-approved amount for DME unless there is an upfront written agreement to the contrary.