State Sen. Angela Paxton, the McKinney Republican whose Senate District 8 takes in all of Allen, filed six bills of her own on Monday, the first day lawmakers could file legislation for the 2027 session. Most deal with sexual abuse, child custody and health insurance.
Insurance preauthorization
Senate Bill 249 would bar HMOs and insurers from making in-network doctors and providers get advance approval, known as preauthorization, before several kinds of care.
The list includes emergency care, urgent outpatient treatment for an acute injury or illness that could worsen without prompt care, outpatient mental health and substance use treatment (except prescription drugs and IV infusions), certain sight-saving eye treatments, and preventive services that federal guidelines rate highly.
Insurers could not later deny or cut payment for that care unless a provider knowingly misrepresented it or failed to perform it. The bill would not apply to Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, and would cover plans issued or renewed starting Jan. 1, 2028.
Custody and abuse cases
SB 248 rewrites the offense of interference with child custody so that it applies to any parent who lures a child under 18 away from the other parent or guardian, not only a noncustodial parent.
The offense would stay a Class C misdemeanor with a $500 fine, but would become a state jail felony for someone with two prior convictions or who takes the child out of Texas.
SB 244 would rename the crime now called possession or promotion of child pornography as child sexual abuse material and change that wording throughout state law.
SB 246 would let police and sexual assault examination programs give victims their required rights notices electronically, through a QR code or link, as well as on paper. It would require departments to update those notices every year instead of every two years and would direct the state's sexual assault survivors task force to keep a website officers can use to deliver them.
Massage ads and foster youth
SB 245 would forbid massage therapists, establishments, schools and instructors from advertising on websites that state law already requires to verify users' ages because of their sexual content.
