Texas Legislature Adjourns with a Handful of New Comp Bills
The Texas Legislature adjourned May 27, 2019 and 14 bills we were watching are waiting for the Governor’s signature. Each bill will become effective sometime this year unless vetoed by Governor Greg Abbott.
If you work for or are involved with governmental entities or first responders, it was a big session for you. Five bills that passed directly impact first responders and the governmental entities who employ them.
If you are involved with commercial carriers or other private risks, most of the bills that impacted you failed to gain approval this session. In fact, only three bills we were watching passed. Those bills will permit advance practice nurses to sign work status reports (DWC-73s), delay the timeframe for sunset review of the Division and the Office of Injured Employee Counsel, and bar the use of the WC fee schedule against medical bills from Federal military treatment facilities.
HB 387 by Rep. Cortez authorizes a treating doctor to delegate the authority to complete and sign a work status report regarding an injured employee’s ability to return to work to an advanced practice registered nurse who is licensed to practice under Chapter 301 of the Occupations Code. The legislature has previously granted this authority to physician assistants. The delegating treating doctor is responsible for the acts of those physician assistants or advanced practice registered nurses.
SB 619 by Sen. Birdwell changes the sunset review process for a number of state agencies, including the Division of Workers’ Compensation and the Office of Injured Employee Counsel. The Sunset Advisory Commission periodically reviews state and other governmental entities. From time to time, the legislature changes the review schedule for certain agencies in order to balance the workload of the commission and to better align the review of agencies based on subject matter. SB 619 seeks to make adjustments to that schedule to better group the entities scheduled for sunset review in upcoming biennia, to remove certain entities from sunset review, and to make statutory modifications to the Texas Sunset Act.
SB 935 by Sen. Hancock concerns the obligation of a workers’ compensation carrier to pay bills from medical facilities that operate as part of the Military Health System of the United States Department of Defense. One example is Brooke Army Medical Center. Federal hospitals have complained that some Texas workers’ compensation insurance carriers have refused or reduced payment for medical services provided to injured employees by federal military treatment facilities, which are then required by law to initiate federal debt collection actions against those employees. The bill seeks to address this issue by providing for the reimbursement of federal military treatment facilities under the workers’ compensation system. The reimbursement rates for medical services provided to an injured employee by a federal military treatment facility must be the amount charged by the facility as determined under Federal law.
The Division is required to pass rules to implement this provision. Those rules must include requirements for processing medical bills for services provided to an injured employee by a federal military treatment facility; and a separate medical dispute resolution process to resolve disputes over charges billed directly to an injured employee by a federal military treatment facility.
A number of bills that would have had a significant impact on the Texas comp system did not pass this session for one reason or another. These include HB 460 and HB 1622, each of which would have expanded the manner in which physicians are permitted to dispense drugs directly from their offices. HB 750 would have required mandatory comp for employers in certain building and construction trades.
In addition, bills that would have required carriers to pay for causation narratives to prove an injured workers’ claim (HB 1005), added cost of living increases to death benefits paid under the act (HB 1305), weakened the intoxication defense (HB 3537), redefined entitlement to Lifetime Income Benefits for some injured workers (HB 3676), and extended the deadline to file suit for judicial review from a Division decision to 60 days (SB 934) failed to gain the necessary support to pass this session.
We will keep you informed of the effective dates for these new bills as soon as they have been signed by the Governor.
FOLIO
