Senate committee hears bill to broaden TXPHP renewal surcharge to all medical licensees

The Committee on Health & Human Services took up Senate Bill 2,480 on the funding mechanism for the Texas Physician Health Program, or TXPHP, and left the bill pending after invited testimony.

Senator Campbell, the bill’s author, told the committee the bill fixes an unintended limitation in last session’s language that the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) had interpreted to allow surcharge collection only from physicians and physician assistants. “TXPHP, that stands for the Texas Physician Health Program,” Campbell said, and the measure “explicitly permit[s] the Texas Medical Board to collect license renewal surcharge fees from all Texas Medical Board licensees to cover the administrative costs for both programs as initially intended.”

The bill’s author and a committee substitute were laid out at the hearing; Senator Perry formally sent up the committee substitute. Dean McDaniel, chair of the Texas Physician Health Program board, and Emily Doyle, the program’s medical director, testified as invited witnesses. McDaniel described the program as providing “confidential early intervention, assessment, treatment referral, and post‑treatment monitoring for all Texas medical board licensees,” and said the substitute clarifies the original intent that all license types would participate in the surcharge.

Asked about the cost to licensees, Doyle said the surcharge is assessed over the license registration cycle: “The fee is spread out over a registration cycle of 2 years. It's a maximum cap at $7.50 per year, $15 per registration cycle.” Committee members asked no further technical questions, and the chair closed public testimony and left Senate Bill 2,480 pending.

Why it matters: TXPHP provides monitoring and treatment referral intended to protect patients and support clinicians with potential impairing conditions. The bill would change the statutory mechanism for funding the program so that the surcharge can be collected from the full set of licensees under the Texas Medical Board rather than a limited subset, matching what witnesses said was the program’s original policy intent.

The committee did not vote on the bill during the hearing; staff and the bill’s author said the committee substitute was meant to be a technical fix to align the statute with the intended funding mechanism.

Public testimony and next steps: With invited witnesses heard and no additional public commenters at the table, the chair closed public testimony and left SB 2,480 pending for later committee action or substitution. The committee said it will return at the scheduled vote time for any pending calendar items.