But the Texas Legislature has made the state the first in the nation to force insurance companies to pass along sensitive employee health records to employers, a practice permitted under federal law.

As of Jan. 1, businesses became entitled to receive a list of their employees and family members — identified by number or some other code, but not by name — whose health bills exceeded $15,000 the previous year.

Employers also can obtain the diagnosis, dates of service, amounts paid, prognosis, future costs and treatment plans for each.

The detailed information also can be obtained for those who have been precertified for hospital stays of five or more days, according to the bill that sailed through the Texas House and Senate without opposition and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last summer.