Relating to the establishment of the Health Impact, Cost, and Coverage Analysis Program; authorizing a fee.

HB 1906 establishes the Health Impact, Cost, and Coverage Analysis Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston to assess bills that would require health insurers to cover new services, adjust payments to providers, or add administrative rules. The program analyzes how such "mandates" would affect coverage options and costs for health benefit plan issuers (including insurers, HMOs, and Medicaid managed care organizations) and enrollees. It authorizes a fee to fund this analysis, which the legislature can request for proposed bills before they become law. The bill does not change current coverage requirements but creates a process to evaluate future mandates' financial and coverage impacts.