Tex. Health & Safety Code § 254.160 · Subchapter D. REGULATION OF FACILITIES
PROHIBITED PRICING PRACTICES DURING DECLARED STATE OF DISASTER.
Text — Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
(a) In this section, "unconscionable price" means a price that is more than 200 percent of the average price for the same or a substantially similar product or service provided to other individuals by health care facilities located in the same county or nearest county to the county in which the freestanding emergency medical care facility is located, as applicable, according to data collected by the department under Chapter 108.
(b) During a state of disaster declared by the governor under Chapter 418, Government Code, a facility may not:
(1) charge an individual an unconscionable price for a product or service provided at the facility; or
(2) knowingly or intentionally charge a third-party payor, including a health benefit plan insurer, a price higher than the price charged to an individual for the same product or service based on the payor's liability for payment or partial payment of the product or service.
(c) Subsection (b)(2) does not prohibit a facility from:
(1) offering an uninsured individual a cash discount for a particular product or service; or
(2) accepting directly from an individual full payment for a health care product or service in lieu of submitting a claim to the individual's health benefit plan.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1050 (S.B. 2038), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2021.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
- Official file
- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.254.htm
- Text hash
- sha256 104fc2b4153085b134414c06dc3c065f2c8acbf65bd85f9fd4076e4956093441
- Composed by
- compose_tx.py 2026-10-05: the Legislative Council's chapter files read in document order; verify_tx.py's independent reading (lxml DOM walk) agrees character for character
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