NU Online News Service, June 5, 10:33 a.m. – The Texas Department of Insurance has proposed rules that would require health maintenance organizations and health insurers to disclose their fee schedules and coding procedures to health care providers.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, asked the Texas department to propose the new rules earlier this year, after the attorney general's office upheld the insurance commissioner's authority to require fee disclosure contract provisions.
Perry asked for the new rules because he believes lack of access to fee information keeps physicians from determining whether health carriers have lived up to the terms of their contracts, according to the Texas department.