H.B. No. 138 establishes the Health Impact, Cost, and Coverage Analysis Program within the Texas Insurance Code by adding Subchapter J. This program aims to prepare analyses of legislative documents that impose new mandates on health benefit plan issuers or administrators. Key terms such as "analysis program," "enrollee," and "health benefit plan issuer" are defined, and the process for requesting analyses is outlined, allowing the lieutenant governor, speaker of the house, or committee chairs to submit requests that include the relevant legislative document. The bill also mandates the comptroller to assess an annual fee on health benefit plan issuers to fund the program, with exemptions for certain plans, and the fee will be based on the number of covered lives attributed to each issuer.

Additionally, the bill requires the Center for Health Care Data at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to prepare and deliver a report within specified timeframes after receiving analysis requests, ensuring confidentiality for individual responses from health benefit plan issuers. The report must be publicly available online and include a copy of the special data call and aggregated responses. Conflict of interest requirements are established for employees involved in the program, prohibiting simultaneous employment or personal interests in health benefit plan issuers. The act is set to take effect immediately upon a two-thirds vote from both houses or on September 1, 2025, if that threshold is not met.

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