Bill Text: TX SB30 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to recovery of health care-related damages in certain civil actions.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 3)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2025-05-30 - House appoints conferees-reported [SB30 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-SB30-Comm_Sub.html

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89R31559 SCL-D
By: Schwertner, et al. S.B. No. 30
(Bonnen)
Substitute the following for S.B. No. 30: No.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to recovery of health care-related damages in certain
civil actions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 41.001, Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, is amended by adding Subdivisions (6-a), (6-b), (6-c), (6-d),
(14), (15), and (16) to read as follows:
(6-a) "Health care expenses" means amounts paid or
owed or that may be paid or owed to a provider for health care
services, supplies, or devices provided to a patient.
(6-b) "Health care services" means services provided
by a provider to an individual to diagnose, prevent, alleviate,
cure, treat, or heal the individual's condition, illness, or
injury, including:
(A) rehabilitative services provided to the
individual; or
(B) personal care provided to the individual on a
short-term or long-term basis.
(6-c) "Injured individual" means the individual whose
injury or death is the subject of a civil action to which Section
14.015 applies.
(6-d) "Letter of protection" means an agreement,
regardless of the name, that includes an express or implied promise
of payment to a health care provider from a judgment or settlement
of an injured individual's civil action or that makes a payment to
the provider contingent on the resolution of the action.
(14) "Physician" means:
(A) an individual licensed to practice medicine;
and
(B) a professional association, partnership,
limited liability partnership, or other type of entity formed or
organized by an individual physician or group of physicians to
provide medical care to patients.
(15) "Provider" means a person, including an
individual, partnership, professional association, corporation,
facility, or institution, who is licensed, certified, registered,
chartered, or otherwise authorized, in this state or elsewhere, to
provide health care services, including:
(A) an acupuncturist;
(B) a chiropractor;
(C) a dentist;
(D) a health care institution of a type described
by Section 74.001(a)(11);
(E) a health care collaborative;
(F) a nonprofit health organization;
(G) a nurse, including a licensed vocational
nurse, nurse practitioner, and registered nurse;
(H) an occupational therapist;
(I) an ophthalmologist;
(J) an optometrist;
(K) a pharmacist;
(L) a physical therapist;
(M) a physician;
(N) a physician's assistant;
(O) a licensed professional counselor;
(P) a psychologist;
(Q) a podiatrist; and
(R) a speech therapist.
(16) "Third-party payor" means an entity, plan, or
program that has a legal or contractual obligation to pay,
reimburse, or otherwise contract with a provider to pay the
provider for the provision of a health care service, supply, or
device to a patient, including:
(A) an insurance company providing health or
dental insurance;
(B) an employer-provided plan or any other
sponsor or administrator of a health or dental plan;
(C) a health maintenance organization operating
under Chapter 843, Insurance Code, an insurer providing a preferred
provider benefit plan under Chapter 1301, Insurance Code, or other
similar entity;
(D) Medicare;
(E) the state Medicaid program, including the
Medicaid managed care program operating under Chapter 540,
Government Code; and
(F) workers' compensation insurance or insurance
provided instead of subscribing to workers' compensation
insurance.
SECTION 2. Chapter 41, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
amended by adding Sections 41.015, 41.016, and 41.017 to read as
follows:
Sec. 41.015. ADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE OF HEALTH CARE EXPENSES.
(a) This section applies to any civil action in which the claimant
seeks recovery of health care expenses as economic damages in a
personal injury or wrongful death action.
(b) If there is a conflict between this section and Section
41.0105, this section controls.
(c) If a third-party payor paid for a health care service,
supply, or device provided to an injured individual, the evidence
that may be offered to prove the amount of the economic damages that
may be awarded to the claimant for that service, supply, or device
is limited to evidence of the amount the third-party payor paid plus
amounts paid by an insured for coinsurance, deductibles, or
copayments related to the service, supply, or device.
(d) If Subsection (c) does not apply, the evidence that may
be offered regarding the reasonable value of the necessary health
care services, supplies, or devices provided to the injured
individual or that in reasonable probability will need to be
provided to the injured individual in the future includes:
(1) evidence of amounts paid by non-third-party payors
to providers for each health care service, supply, or device, but
not to purchase an account receivable or as a loan, if paid without
a formal or informal agreement for the provider to refund, rebate,
or remit money to the payor, injured individual, claimant, or
claimant's attorney or anyone associated with the payor, injured
individual, claimant, or claimant's attorney; and
(2) any of the following:
(A) the Medicare allowable amount applicable at
the time and place the service, supply, or device was provided;
(B) the maximum allowable reimbursement amount
under the medical fee guidelines prescribed by Subtitle A, Title 5,
Labor Code, applicable at the time and place the service, supply, or
device was provided;
(C) the 50th percentile of amounts allowed to
participating providers in the geozip and during the calendar
quarter in which the service, supply, or device was provided;
(D) if, within the time a claimant's affidavit
under Section 18.001(d) must be served, the claimant serves a
notice of intent to rely on the following:
(i) the average amounts collected by the
provider during the one-year period preceding the date the service,
supply, or device was provided; or
(ii) the provider's range of contracted
rates with commercial insurers regulated by the Texas Department of
Insurance in effect on the date the service, supply, or device was
provided; and
(E) the provider's billed charges for the
service, supply, or device provided to the injured individual.
(e) A party may not compel a provider by a pretrial
discovery request or by subpoena to provide evidence that may be
admissible under Subsection (d)(2)(D) unless the claimant serves a
notice of intent under that subsection.
(f) Except as provided by rules adopted by the supreme
court, for each service, supply, or device provided to the injured
individual, a health care provider's statements or invoices
submitted into evidence must provide:
(1) an industry-recognized billing code;
(2) a description of the service, supply, or device;
and
(3) the date each service, supply, or device was
provided to the injured individual.
Sec. 41.016. CLAIMANT DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS IN ACTION FOR
HEALTH CARE EXPENSES; CERTAIN MATTERS ADMISSIBLE. (a) In addition
to other items that may be required to be provided by rule, court
decision, or other law, in an action to which Section 41.015
applies, a claimant shall disclose or provide to each other party:
(1) any letter of protection related to the action;
(2) any oral or written agreement under which a
provider may refund, rebate, or remit money to a payor, injured
individual, claimant, claimant's attorney, or person associated
with the payor, injured individual, claimant, or claimant's
attorney;
(3) the identity of any provider who provided health
care services to the injured individual in relation to the
injury-causing event and provide an authorization to all other
parties to the case that will allow those parties to obtain from the
provider all of the injured individual's medical records relating
to that event; and
(4) if the injured individual was referred to a
provider for services and the provider's medical records, billing
statements, or testimony will be presented to the trier of fact in
the action:
(A) the name, address, and telephone number of
the person who made the referral, regardless of whether that person
is the injured individual's attorney; and
(B) if the person making the referral was not the
injured individual's attorney, the relationship between the person
making the referral and the injured individual or the injured
individual's attorney.
(b) On request by a party to an action to which Section
41.015 applies, a provider who provided a health care service,
supply, or device to an injured individual in relation to the
injury-causing event that is the subject of the action shall
provide the following information to all parties to the action:
(1) an anonymized list of persons an attorney to the
action referred to the provider in the preceding two years;
(2) the date and amount of each payment made to the
provider in the preceding two years by, through, or at the direction
of the attorney;
(3) if applicable, each person anonymously described
under Subdivision (1) on whose behalf a payment described by
Subdivision (2) was made; and
(4) other aspects of any financial relationship
between the referring attorney and the provider.
(c) For purposes of Subsection (b), a referral is considered
to have been made by the injured individual's attorney even if made
by another person when the injured individual's attorney knew or
had reason to know that the referral would be made.
(d) In an action to which Section 41.015 applies, the
following matters shall be admitted into evidence if offered by any
party:
(1) the injured individual's medical records relating
to the injury-causing event;
(2) if a provider's medical records, billing
statements, or testimony will be presented to the trier of fact in
the action, any letter of protection relating to that provider;
(3) if the injured individual was referred to a health
care provider for services by the injured individual's attorney and
that provider's medical records, billing statements, or testimony
will be presented to the trier of fact in the action, the
information disclosed under Subsection (b); and
(4) treatment guidelines and drug formularies
approved by the Workers' Compensation Division of the Texas
Department of Insurance as evidence relating to the necessity of
health care services provided to the injured individual.
Sec. 41.017. RULES OF EVIDENCE IN ACTION FOR HEALTH CARE
EXPENSES. Except as otherwise provided by Sections 41.015 and
41.016, the Texas Rules of Evidence govern an action to which
Section 41.015 applies.
SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act apply to an
action:
(1) commenced on or after the effective date of this
Act; or
(2) pending on the effective date of this Act and in
which a trial, or a new trial or retrial following a motion, appeal,
or otherwise, begins on or after January 1, 2026.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.