Federal Court Blocks Provisions of Texas Law Focused on Managed Vision Care Plans and OD Communications

DALLAS—A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas last week blocked portions of HB 1696, the 2023 Texas law that restricted how managed vision care plans communicate price and provider participation information to members. Judge James Wesley Hendrix ruled that key provisions of the statute violated the First Amendment by barring vision plans from informing patients about participating providers who offer lower cost services or products. The opinion said the law would have “forced consumers to remain ‘misled or uninformed for their own protection,’” the court said in rendering its decision.