‘The Botox party bill' moving forward in legislature
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Proposed legislation to enhance patient safety and tighten Texas laws over who can administer Botox injections — and similar treatments — passed the Senate Thursday morning and is moving forward in the legislative process.
Senate Bill 378 from State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, who is also a medical doctor, was filed after a KXAN investigation uncovered that anyone can become certified to do injections, including Botox, and the need for more oversight for patient safety.
RELATED: Texas pushes to tighten rules for Botox, similar treatments
The Senate Business and Commerce Committee learned the details of Senate Bill 378 from Schwertner earlier this month before receiving a favorable vote from the committee on March 19 with '10 Ayes' and '0 Nays.'
RELATED: 'The Botox party bill': Legislation introduced following KXAN's 'Backroom Botox' investigation
'There have been increased reports of these individuals administering unauthorized and unsafe injections to friends and families without proper supervision or training,' Schwertner said Thursday morning on the Senate floor.
In May, KXAN's 'Backroom Botox,' highlighted a medical emergency under investigation by the police department in Dublin, a small city north of Austin after a Botox procedure in the backroom of a local shop led to a young woman fainting, vomiting and seizing for five-minutes, according to the EMS report.
If passed, the bill would prohibit estheticians, cosmetologists and barbers from administering injections and using prescriptive medical devices unless they are legally licensed and authorized to perform these acts.
'By law, estheticians and cosmetologists and barbers may only perform injections under the authority of a physician,' Schwertner said.
Additionally, the bill would give the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation the statutory authority to take disciplinary action against those administering unauthorized injections.
According to Schwertner, there is a 'lack of clarity' between TDLR and the Texas Medical Board over who has authority to discipline estheticians and cosmetologists in Texas, which has led to an inability to pursue actions against those administering unauthorized injections.
'This bill creates this regulatory oversight by clarifying in statute that TDLR has disciplinary authority over estheticians or cosmetologists or barbers in violation of their license,' Schwertner said.
The next phase for 'The Botox party bill' will be with the House committee for a public hearing before being sent to the full House for a vote.
KXAN will have updates to this story once those hearings have been held.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
House lawmaker proposes budget cuts to Hope Florida
TALLAHASSEE — In an early, antagonizing move during the dedicated two-week budget conference that began Tuesday, the Republican House lawmaker investigating Hope Florida is proposing to cut millions from its state funding. Rep. Alex Andrade is striking funding for 20 Hope navigator positions, state workers who man a hotline and are supposed to direct people in need to nongovernmental programs for help. Andrade also suggested striking six proposed positions for navigators from the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs. The positions were requested in Gov. Ron DeSantis' proposed budget and initially funded in the House's health care offer from March. But that was before Andrade began investigating the charity supporting Hope Florida. The House is proposing to cut from its March health care budget offer $2.5 million. The Senate would have to agree. Hope Florida's helpline is currently funded by federal child abuse prevention grants through the American Rescue Plan, which is set to expire. DeSantis asked lawmakers for $2 million to continue staffing the call line. It's not clear how much Hope Florida, a program that spans numerous state agencies, costs the state. DeSantis has said it repurposes existing resources, including by converting at least 150 people to Hope navigators, but the state has also paid a vendor about $6 million to match needy Floridians with local churches and nonprofits under the program. Andrade said that while the Hope Florida navigators give him 'less heartburn' than the related charity, he was still concerned about the state program. The program and the charity are linked in their mission to get Floridians off of government aid. Since Hope Florida has come under scrutiny, the governor and first lady Casey DeSantis have been calling it a 'philosophy,' not a program. Andrade said their inability to define Hope Florida was troubling. And it also worried him that the state official who ran Hope Florida in the Department of Children and Families, Shevaun Harris, didn't know while testifying in his health budget committee earlier this year that there was someone responsible for the entire program. 'Shevaun Harris didn't realize she'd hired the Hope Florida executive director,' Andrade said over text message about why he was making the cuts, 'and the Governor's office can't decide if the program is a 'philosophy' or a 'movement.'' When asked whether the proposed cuts would affect negotiations between the two chambers, Sen. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican and the Senate chairman of the health budget conference, said he didn't 'see any particular issue being a hang-up at this point.' 'It's more of a question of how far we can get before tomorrow at 2,' Trumbull told the Times/Herald in a text message. 'We are working to make as much progress as possible.' Without a resolution by Thursday afternoon, higher-ranking members of the House and Senate will decide what to do with the navigator positions. A Senate spokeswoman said that while Senate President Ben Albritton supports his chamber's offer on the Hope navigators — funding the 20 staffers currently employed and six additional positions in Veterans' Affairs — he wasn't going to weigh in at this time on how big a deal the House's decision is for negotiations. Albritton generally supports Hope Florida. 'The mission of Hope Florida makes sense to me. I do believe it will help people that need direction to be able to build a better path for their life,' Albritton, R-Wauchula, told CBS News Miami on April 13. Miami Herald religion reporter Lauren Costantino contributed to this report.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Nearly 11 million Americans would lose insurance under Trump's tax bill, analysis says
Nearly 11 million Americans would lose insurance under Trump's tax bill, analysis says Show Caption Hide Caption Elon Musk slams Trump's big tax bill on X Days after leaving the White House, Elon Musk slammed President Trump's big tax bill on X. About 10.9 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage under the President Donald Trump's tax cut bill that cleared the House but faces a tough test in the Senate, a new analysis shows. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said about 10.9 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage through 2034 under the bill, including 1.4 million undocumented residents who get coverage through state-funded programs. The legislation that cleared the House would require nondisabled Americans on Medicaid to work at least 80 hours per month or qualify for an exemption, such as being a student or caregiver. The bill also would strip coverage to immigrants who get Medicaid through state-funded programs. The analysis said the bill would cut federal spending by about $1.3 trillion through 2034. But it would also deliver tax cuts of $3.75 trillion, and the federal deficit would increase nearly $2.4 trillion over the next decade. Health analysts said if the Medicaid changes as well as tweaks to the Affordable Care Act marketplace clear Congress, the effects on health insurance coverage would be significant. The CBO earlier estimated nearly 4 million people would lose health insurance coverage through 2034 if Congress did not extend sweetened COVID-19 pandemic-era tax credits that have made ACA plans more affordable for consumers. Trump's Medicaid overhaul as well as the expiration of the more generous ACA tax credit could jeopardize health insurance coverage for nearly 15 million people, said Kathy Hempstead, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We're making a giant U-turn here," said Hempstead. "Are we really going to be a thriving, productive society if we have a huge share of our population uninsured?" Hempstead said the uninsured might delay care and accrue more medical debt. She also said hospitals and doctors also will take a financial hit as uncompensated care rises. "There's going to be a big hit on on the health care economy as people stop getting care and start trying to get care that they can't pay for," Hempstead said.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Telehealth visits for pets? Ohio Senate votes 33-0 to let veterinarians add service
Jun. 4—Ohio veterinarians are one step closer to being cleared to hold telehealth consultations under state law following the Senate's 33-0 vote this week. Senate Bill 60, joint sponsored by local Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, will now head to the Ohio House for further consideration. Huffman, a physician, told this outlet in January that he wanted to modernize the state's guidelines on veterinary medicine after seeing the benefits of telehealth in the medical field. "You know, it became very rapid and very successful in medicine because of COVID," Huffman said. "And to me, it sped up (progress); what was going to happen within 10 years we did within one year." He noted that veterinary telehealth visits, which currently are not permitted under Ohio law, could benefit Ohioans, particularly the elderly, who might "find it hard to get your cat to the veterinarian." In committee testimony, the bill received both support and opposition from individual vets and clinics, with detractors like veterinarian Andrea Miller concerned that "virtual care cannot replicate in-person evaluations." "As a practicing veterinarian, I've encountered countless cases where verbal symptom descriptions pointed to one diagnosis, but physical examination revealed a different condition — or multiple concurrent problems," Miller told the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee in May. ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
