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Read. Follow. Verify.Texas Health and Human Services Commission to establish prescription drug purchasing pool for employers and insurers
Last action · April 29, 2025: Committee report sent to CalendarsSponsor: James Talarico
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What This Bill Proposed
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission must establish a prescription drug purchasing pool by September 1, 2025, allowing certain health plan issuers, self-insured private employers, and public employers to buy prescription drugs at negotiated discounted rates.
Participating employers and insurers gain access to negotiated bulk rates for employee and retiree prescription drugs and the option to buy negotiated stop-loss coverage, while retaining individual responsibility for paying actual claim costs.
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Health benefit plan issuers
Issuers gain the option to purchase prescription drugs through the commission-negotiated purchasing pool for their covered individuals.
Qualified public employers
Political subdivisions, school districts, and higher education institutions gain access to discounted prescription drug purchasing and optional stop-loss coverage.
Qualified private employers
Self-insured private businesses in Texas are permitted to enroll in the purchasing pool to procure prescription drugs at discounted rates.
Employees, employees' dependents, and retirees
Prescription drug benefits for these individuals are purchased through the new pool under terms and rates negotiated by the commission.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible to participate in the prescription drug purchasing pool?
Does joining the purchasing pool make employers responsible for other participants' medical claims?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · in House committee.
Procedural history
13 actions- Apr 29, 2025HouseCommittee report sent to Calendars
- Apr 28, 2025HouseCommittee report distributed
- Apr 28, 2025HouseComte report filed with Committee Coordinator
- Apr 23, 2025HouseCommitteeReported favorably as substituted
- Apr 23, 2025HouseCommittee substitute considered in committee
- Apr 23, 2025HouseConsidered in public hearing
Show 7 earlier actions
- Apr 17, 2025HouseLeft pending in committee
- Apr 17, 2025HouseTestimony taken/registration(s) recorded in committee
- Apr 17, 2025HouseConsidered in public hearing
- Apr 17, 2025HouseScheduled for public hearing on . . .
- Mar 11, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred to Insurance
- Mar 11, 2025HouseIntroducedRead first time
- Nov 25, 2024HouseIntroducedFiled
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Creation of State-Facilitated Drug Purchasing Pool
The measure introduces a new chapter in the Health and Safety Code enabling public and private entities to combine purchasing power for prescription drugs without forming a traditional risk pool.
Connected Entities
Sources
capitol.texas.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 75)
- Controversy20Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz40Current news / social attention level
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