The Texas House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence is currently considering HB 4806 which seeks to counter excessive medical charges and claims.
The bill addresses disclosure of referral relationships between lawyers and doctors, financial arrangements between lawyers and doctors, and guidelines for objective data to better define what charges are reasonable. It also refines the definitions relating to noneconomic damages. You can find the current draft here.
Last week, I had the opportunity to testify before the committee regarding the impact of inflated medical billing in litigation. I shared examples we encounter regularly in our practice:
Routine injections typically billed by a doctor in his office for $238 each were instead routed through a surgical center and billed at over $25,000.
In one case, $847,000 in medical charges were reviewed by an economist, who determined that the median insurance reimbursement for the same care was approximately $50,000.
Another case involved $425,000 in billed charges, with a median in-network value of $40,000.
HB 4806 attempts to tackle a broad spectrum of issues. It is our hope that at a minimum the disclosures regarding the referrals and financial relationships between lawyers and doctors be addressed. We see too many instances where this information is not being disclosed and is shielded from juries.
Juan R Fuentes
Managing Partner
