Game-Changing Legislation for Texas Employers

Game-Changing Legislation for Texas Employers

House Bill 711 (HB 711) passed 146-0 in the Texas House, and only received ONE “nay” vote in the Senate.  HB 711 is effective immediately, and addresses anti-competitive practices in the healthcare industry we’ve been addressing for several years now.

Read article here: https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2023/06/texas-health-insurance-set-for-massive-steering-and-tiering-shakeup/

What HP711 does is allow employers to begin “tiering” their health insurance plan designs to incentivize employees to receive care from high-quality/low-cost hospitals and doctors within their “networks”.  This incentivizing is called “steering”.  Before, the major insurance companies said that if you use their networks, you cannot “steer” employees/plan members to one provider or facility over another within their network, no matter how much better one provider is, or how less expensive they are, your plan could not incentivize a covered member to go to one hospital vs. another, etc.  That is all changing now with HB711.

We built High Plains Health Plan with this “tier” and “steer” approach for our plan members from the beginning, and now the State of Texas has opened this strategy up for all employers.  But how the insurance carriers will respond is still in question, as they opposed HB711 from the beginning.  We do not anticipate the major insurance carriers will quickly design health plans with these “Tier” and “Steer” components that are now allowed under HP711.  Large corporations move slowly by nature anyway. 

High Plains Health Plan is available to regional employers now, and already has these components built in.  Our plans offer $0 Deductibles and copays for thousands of medical procedures and services today.  The “No deductible/no copay” strategy is cited in the above article by Chris Skisak, executive director for Nonprofit Texas Employers for Affordable Healthcare, as ways employers can “steer” employees to high-quality/low-cost providers.  He also states that it is up to employers to push these changes, “If employers don’t take advantage of tiering and steering, a reasonable person would ask what the rationale is for not being more fiduciary about this.”

The reason we built High Plains Health Plan, and the reason the State has unanimously passed HB711, is because we understand that “steering” and “tiering” works to reduce healthcare costs for employers and employees, a message we’ve been sharing for quite some time.  It increases competition and transparency.  We would love to share more about how our plans are already doing this, and how companies and organizations can take advantage of these new opportunities.  Our State legislators see the importance of giving employers this level of flexibility and this ability to address healthcare costs.  High Plains Health Plan delivers that flexibility….. www.hphealthplan.com 

We welcome any questions about this new legislation you may have.  Have a great day!

Josh Butler

Josh is the President of Butler Benefits & Consulting. Passionate about healthcare reform and helping employers save money while improving the quality of employee benefits.

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