Legislature 2019: House B&I Committee Members Named, Early Bills Filed

The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), has named committee members and chairs for the 2019 session, including members of the House Business and Industry Committee, where most workers’ comp bills will be heard. House B&I will be comprised of almost a completely new cast, including a new chair and vice chair.

The House Business and Industry committee, which hears workers’ compensation related legislation, is composed of the following members (new members designated with *):

Trey Martinez-Fischer (D-San Antonio) Chair*
Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) Vice-Chair*
Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth)
Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa)*
Hugh Shine (R-Temple)*
Michelle Beckley (D-Carrollton)*
Joseph Moody (D-El Paso)*
Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound)*
Jared Patterson (R-Frisco)*

Several bills have been filed currently that directly relate to the workers’ compensation system.

Senate Bill 163, by Sen. Rodriguez (D-El Paso), would require the provision of workers’ compensation coverage for employees of certain building and construction contractors and subcontractors.

Senate Bill 225, by Sen. Zaffirini (D-Laredo). This bill would require that OIEC’s notice to injured workers must inform an injured employee that the employee has the right to choose a treating doctor, including a doctor of medicine, osteopathic medicine, optometry, dentistry, podiatry, or chiropractic who is licensed and authorized to practice. (Companion to HB 741)

House Bill 387, by Rep. Cortez (D-San Antonio). Last session, the legislature amended the Labor Code to permit a treating doctor to delegate the authority to complete and sign a work status report regarding a claimant’s ability to return to work to a physician’s assistant. This bill proposes to expand that authority to licensed advanced practice registered nurses.

House Bill 741, by Rep. Davis (D-Dallas). This bill would require that OIEC’s notice to injured workers must inform an injured employee that the employee has the right to choose a treating doctor, including a doctor of medicine, osteopathic medicine, optometry, dentistry, podiatry, or chiropractic who is licensed and authorized to practice. (Companion to SB 225)

House Bill 783, by Rep. Zedler (R-Arlington). This bill would authorize certain doctors that had previously been removed from the TWCC list of approved doctors to once again treat patients within the Texas workers’ compensation system.

As reported earlier, the Division of Workers’ Compensation has proposed two legislative recommendations this session. The proposals are contained in the agency’s biennial report to the 86th Texas Legislature, which was posted on the DWC website December 1, 2018. The report also identifies one “emerging issue” without proposing any particular legislative change to the Act.

In its first proposal, the Division recommends amending Texas Labor Code §406.145 (f) to remove the requirement for hiring contractors to file the DWC-84, Exception to Application of Joint Agreement for Certain Building and Construction Workers, with DWC. Under the proposal the form would continue to be sent to the hiring contractor’s insurance carrier and would be available to DWC, if requested.

The bill appears to correct an oversight from the 2017 session where HB 2112 made several changes to Chapter 406 to eliminate obsolete reporting requirements. The reporting requirement relating to the DWC-84 was inexplicably omitted from that legislation.

The Division’s second proposal concerns healthcare provided to injured employees in federal medical facilities. This recommendation is designed to address the issue of injured employees being balance-billed when receiving medical care at military treatment facilities. The Division recommends that the legislature create a new section in Chapter 413 that would provide a definition of “federal military treatment facility” and would clarify that medical care provided in these facilities is exempt from certain workers’ compensation-specific statutory requirements in Labor Code Chapters 408, 413, and 504 relating to medical billing and reimbursement, as well as network requirements in Texas Insurance Code, Chapter 1305.

Finally, the Division has highlighted an issue related to first responders, without making a specific legislative recommendation on that issue. The issue concerns presumptions created under Chapter 607 of the Texas Government Code. That Chapter creates rebuttable presumptions for firefighters and EMTs who are diagnosed with certain forms of cancer, heart attacks and strokes, tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases, and smallpox or other diseases for which immunization is possible.

The session will run for almost five months before adjournment until 2021. The following are important dates of interest for the legislative session.

• Friday, March 8, 2019 (60th day)

Deadline for the unrestricted filing of bills and joint resolutions other than local bills, emergency appropriations, and emergency matters submitted by the governor
(Sec. 5(b), Article III, Texas Constitution; House Rule 8, Sec. 8; Senate Rule 7.07(b); Senate Rule 10.01 subjects joint resolutions to the rules governing proceedings on bills)

• Monday, May 27, 2019 (140th day)

Last day of 86th Legislature (sine die)
(Sec. 24(b), Art. III, Texas Constitution)

After March 8, 2019, a number of granular deadlines will be imposed that will affect whether and how individual bills proceed through the House and the Senate while on their way to the Governor’s desk. The last 22 days of the session then become critical to the successful passage or failure of a particular bill. Critical deadlines crop up almost daily during this period.