2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB3940
HB3940 requires the Health and Human Services Commission to send an annual written reminder to managed care organizations and participating providers that regularly care for pregnant Medicaid recipients or newborns.
Official caption: Relating to the provision of certain information about Medicaid benefits in relation to newborn children.
Official report lists House author(s): Johnson, Orr, Oliverson, Hull, Garcia, Linda. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB3940 requires the Health and Human Services Commission to send an annual written reminder to managed care organizations and participating providers that regularly care for pregnant Medicaid recipients or newborns.
- Hospitals, birthing centers, physicians, nurse midwives and midwives providing prenatal or delivery care must add children's Medicaid eligibility and application information to the resource pamphlet supplied to parents.
- Providers must document delivery of the applicable materials, including the new notice; the existing five-year record-retention duty remains.
What does it do?
HB3940 requires the Health and Human Services Commission to send an annual written reminder to managed care organizations and participating providers that regularly care for pregnant Medicaid recipients or newborns. The reminder says a provider may use the mother’s Medicaid identification number on reimbursement claims when her newborn has not yet received a separate number, and encourages providers to explain this to mothers and expectant mothers. Enacted text, section 1
Hospitals, birthing centers, physicians, nurse midwives and midwives providing prenatal or delivery care must add children’s Medicaid eligibility and application information to the resource pamphlet supplied to parents. For a mother receiving Medicaid, the English/Spanish resource guide must also explain how to report the birth to HHSC for enrollment. An additional HHSC-developed written notice must tell the family that the newborn is automatically eligible and that the mother’s number may be used for the baby’s reimbursement claims until the child is enrolled and assigned a separate number. The automatic-eligibility notice is specifically for the newborn of a Medicaid recipient—not a statement that every newborn qualifies regardless of circumstances. Section 2
Providers must document delivery of the applicable materials, including the new notice; the existing five-year record-retention duty remains. DSHS had to update the materials and HHSC develop the notice by December 1, 2025. Compliance with the amended provider-information provision began January 1, 2026, although the act itself took effect September 1, 2025. Sections 2–4
What changed along the way?
The introduced, House committee, House-passed, Senate committee and enrolled versions contain the same operative requirements. Both committees reported it without amendments; the amendment index lists none. The governor signed it June 20, 2025. Introduced · House report · House-passed · Senate report · Amendment index · History
Most of the long list of newborn-health pamphlet topics was already law, including safe sleep, immunizations, shaken-baby prevention and heatstroke. HB3940 adds Medicaid information, birth-reporting instructions, the written eligibility/number notice and annual provider reminders. It does not newly create every health-information duty reproduced in the bill. Health and Safety Code 161.501
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Families may be less likely to mistake a missing newborn identification number for a lack of coverage. Providers and health plans receive recurring reminders about billing while enrollment paperwork is completed. These are intended practical benefits, not proof that the law has reduced delayed care or claims denials.
Agencies must update materials and send reminders; covered providers must distribute and document the added information. The latest posted fiscal note anticipated no significant state or local-government impact and assumed costs could be absorbed with existing resources. May 20 fiscal note
Review boundary: This is an information-and-notice law, not a general expansion of Medicaid eligibility or a guarantee that any particular claim will be paid. It does not remove the birth-reporting/enrollment steps described in the law. This review does not audit current agency forms, individual eligibility or claims-processing procedures.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
