2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB4145
HB4145 lets a health care provider satisfy the usual patient-billing deadline by submitting a bill to the patient's attorney when the services relate to a personal-injury claim and the attorney represents that patient.
Official caption: Relating to the timely billing of health care services related to a personal injury claim.
Official report lists House author(s): Dyson. 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.
- HB4145 lets a health care provider satisfy the usual patient-billing deadline by submitting a bill to the patient's attorney when the services relate to a personal-injury claim and the attorney represents that patient.
- For the law's billing-date rule, a bill mailed to the attorney counts when mailed postage prepaid to the attorney's address shown in the provider's records.
What does it do?
HB4145 lets a health care provider satisfy the usual patient-billing deadline by submitting a bill to the patient’s attorney when the services relate to a personal-injury claim and the attorney represents that patient. The patient or other responsible person may direct otherwise. The deadline remains the first day of the eleventh month after the services were provided; this is not permission to wait until a lawsuit ends.
For the law’s billing-date rule, a bill mailed to the attorney counts when mailed postage prepaid to the attorney’s address shown in the provider’s records. Existing separate rules for billing health plans and other payors, including their applicable contractual or regulatory deadlines, remain in place. The change applies only to health care services provided on or after September 1, 2025.
What changed along the way?
Previously, the patient-billing provision named the patient or other responsible person, not this express attorney alternative. The bill adds that alternative to Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 146.002 and updates the mailing rule.
The introduced text, House committee report, engrossed text, Senate committee printing and enrolled text have the same operative provisions. The amendment index lists no amendments. The history records passage by both chambers and the governor’s June 20, 2025 signature.
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?
Providers and attorneys handling injury claims gain a clear way to route covered bills without missing the patient-billing deadline. Patients retain the ability to direct a different route, but should recognize that a timely bill to their attorney can satisfy this requirement even if the bill was not sent directly to them.
The law does not make the attorney personally liable for the medical debt or erase every late bill. Existing Section 146.003 limits recovery of specified amounts when a provider violates the timely-billing law; HB4145 does not replace that rule. The latest fiscal note anticipated no significant state or local-government fiscal impact, with state costs absorbed using existing resources. It did not quantify private billing savings or costs.
Review boundary: This explains where a qualifying bill may be sent and when, not whether a particular medical charge is owed, insured or recoverable in a lawsuit.
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.
