TOGETHER, TEXAS EMPLOYERS ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
Funding the Texas All-Payer Claims Database
The establishment of a Texas All-Payor Claims Database (APCD) in 2021 was an important step toward removing some of the mystery around health care prices, removing a significant barrier to its use. Unfortunately, federal grants to help fund the effort were not forthcoming, making use of the database cost-prohibitive for too many researchers.
A funded APCD allows other qualified researchers to conduct research that could improve the cost, quality, and delivery of health care in Texas, including allowing the Center for Health Care Data to conduct the research necessary to produce required reports on health care pricing, resource use, and quality information for policy makers, purchasers, and consumers.
The data provided by the APCD can also be used by employers or their health plan or consultant intermediaries to benchmark their plans against others, identifying low-priced providers that can actually be utilized—because the database contains actual claims data, it indicates which providers are actually providing specific services regularly.
That’s why TXEAHC advocated for and applauded the Texas Legislature’s approval of state funds to fully establish and maintain the database and public access portal in 2025.
Quality transparency and smart shopping
Texans are getting more information about health care prices thanks to efforts like Senate Bill 1137 and House Bill 2090, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2021. But because anticompetitive, outdated laws and regulations prevent health plans from providing customers with information about quality, it’s still nearly impossible for people to shop for lower cost, higher quality health care services and providers. Texans deserve better.
“Texans are a thrifty bunch,” said Chris Skisak, executive director of Texas Employers for Affordable Health Care. “Price transparency was a good first step towards giving Texans the tools we need to make smart decisions about our care, and with improved quality transparency, we can better find the best value for our health care dollars.”
That’s why we advocated for and applauded the Texas Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 926, introduced by Senator Kelly Hancock, that removes barriers to information about health care quality and allows insurers and health plans to reward smart shoppers through modified deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, or other cost-sharing provisions, and Senate Bill 493, sponsored by Senator Lois Kolkhorst, that allows pharmacists to inform patients about opportunities to save money on prescription drugs.
“We are thrilled with the passage of these bills that will provide information to help Texans make more informed choices about their health care,” said Chris Skisak, PhD, executive director for TXEAHC. “This legislation is a step in the right direction to help employers and working families rein in out-of-control health care prices.”
In 2025, we were also excited by the passage of Rep. Lacey Hull’s House Bill 2254, which allows for primary care physicians and groups to enter into contracts that include capitation and other value-based incentives without penalty from health plans.
House Bill 711 (88R)
Anti-competitive contracting practices inflate the costs of healthcare at the expense of Texas employers, their employees, and their families. During the 2023 Texas Legislative Session, Texas Employers for Affordable Healthcare worked in support of House Bill 711 (88R), which takes an important step towards restoring market competition by banning anti-competitive contracting practices including:
And by ensuring that when health benefit plans encourage their enrollees to obtain a health care service from a particular provider – including offering incentives to encourage enrollees to use specific providers, introducing or modifying a tiered network plan, or assigning providers into tiers – that they do so for the primary benefit of the enrollee.
“We are grateful to State Representative James Frank for authoring this bill, Senator Lois Kolkhorst for sponsoring it in the Senate, and for the leadership of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dan Phelan to make strides to create the same free market principles that exist for all other markets outside of healthcare,” says Chris Skisak, PhD., TXEAHC executive director. “House Bill 711 will help create transparency, competition and consumer awareness – tenets long missing from the healthcare purchasing process.”
