SB896

SB896 gives families more time to arrange continuing newborn coverage under the health plans specified in the act. For covered small-employer and large-employer plans and covered multiple-employer welfare arrangements, initial newborn coverage now ends on the 61st day after birth rather than the 32nd unless the required steps are met. The plan or arrangement must receive notice of the birth and any required additional premium no later than the 60th day, instead of the 31st. The large-employer and multiple-employer provisions also retain the condition that children be eligible under the plan. Notice alone is not enough, and the law does not waive premiums. Final act, sections 1, 3 and 4.

A separate provision addresses qualifying individual or group accident-and-health insurance policies that provide maternity benefits or coverage for additional newborn children. It expressly prohibits limiting or excluding initial newborn coverage before the 61st day after birth. Its existing congenital-defect and newborn-screening protections remain in the text; SB896 did not create those protections. Section 2; Policy scope; Prior wording.

This is not a blanket rule for every employer plan. The small- and large-employer rules use Chapter 1501’s definitions and scope, including its exclusions for specified limited-benefit coverage. Chapter 846’s multiple-employer rule has its own Texas connection requirements and excludes an arrangement while it is fully insured; an underlying insurance policy may instead be governed by the applicable policy rules. Federal law also limits state regulation of employee benefit plans and has a distinct multiple-employer exception. Do not assume that a self-funded employer plan has this state-law deadline simply because it provides health benefits. Employer-plan definitions; Small-plan scope; Large-plan scope; Multiple-employer scope; Federal limits, 29 U.S.C. 1144(a), (b)(2) and (b)(6).

Signed June 20, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025. But its changes apply only to plans delivered, issued for delivery or renewed on or after January 1, 2026. Plans delivered, issued or renewed before that date remain governed by the former law for that purpose. History; Sections 5–6.