Article
The 78th Legislative Session has officially ended and we now have the opportunity to stop and look back at what has been accomplished this session. Last week I covered some of the major issues; the budget, insurance reform and public school finance. This week and in the weeks to come, I'd like to discuss other bills of importance that were passed.
Important reform was made in the area of medical malpractice insurance. HB 4 places a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages applied to all physicians and health care providers on a per case/occurrence basis. Liability is also capped for hospitals at $250,000 each per case for non-economic damages. Total non-economic damages against hospitals, collectively, cannot exceed $500,000 in any single case. Non-economic damages are damages such as "pain and suffering" and "inconveniences." These limits will lower doctor's and hospital's exorbitant liability insurance rates, ultimately lowering health care costs to consumers.
Significant strides were made in the way of easing congestion on our roadways, allowing for new and innovative ways of building transportation systems in a cheaper and quicker fashion. HB 3588 provides for revenue to the Mobility Fund and allows this revenue to be leveraged into a multi-billion dollar transportation improvement package without jeopardizing our current transportation funding stream.
This bill should help relieve gridlock on our roadways and, as an added incentive, includes provisions to help fund trauma centers. Texas trauma facilities statewide incurred $564 million in costs to provide treatment to trauma patients. In 2001, $181.5 million in costs were incurred treating uninsured patients. Almost half of all trauma occurrences are vehicle related.
HB 2292 was another piece of legislation with significant impact. This bill reorganizes eleven Health and Human Service Agencies and consolidates many duplicative functions performed by those various agencies. HB 2292 also implements a preferred drug list on Medicaid coverage and increases responsibility of welfare recipients for non-compliance with participation requirements. The consolidation, streamlined service to clients and fraud reduction is expected to save taxpayers approximately a billion dollars.
I encourage you to contact me during the interim with your comments and suggestions or if I may be of assistance with any issues dealing with state agencies. You can reach me by writing to P.O. Box 2910, Austin, TX 78768-2910 or by e-mailing me at larry.phillips@house.state.tx.us.
Gallery