2025 Legislative Session – Dates and Analysis of Prefiled Bills
The 89th Texas legislative session convenes at 12:00 noon CST on January 14, 2025. The period for prefiling bills has already begun (as of November 12, 2024), and since then over 1,500 bills have been filed.
The last day to file bills is March 14, 2025, and June 2, 2025 will mark the end of the regular legislative session.
FOL has compiled information from DWC’s Brown Bag Lunches, Carrier Quarterly Meetings, and DWC’s November 2024 Biennial report to the legislature, and we have reviewed various bills already on file. Here is an informal list of what appear to be the division’s workers’ comp legislative priorities this session, as well as certain other WC-related proposed legislation:
Virtual Contested Case Hearings (CCHs): Commissioner Nelson has indicated that DWC will push for changes to the WC Act to permit CCHs to be performed virtually (by Zoom) if both parties agree. SB 423 would implement this plan, and allow the Commissioner to adopt rules to implement it. Another bill, SB 67, would mandate virtual CCHs for certain first responders and governmental entities.
Telemedicine: DWC is pushing to permit telemedicine evaluations for MMI and impairment in certain situations, and to expand telehealth (e.g. telemedicine and teledentisty) generally within the WC system. HB 1066 would implement the necessary legislative changes in the MMI/IR arena, and notably would limit telemedicine evaluations of this kind to specific “musculoskeletal injur[ies] or diagnoses”. Other related bills (HB 1052, SB 392 and SB 397) provide for structure around telehealth treatment, billing and related issues within workers’ compensation.
First Responders: HB 331 would remove the “nonroutine” language completely from Government Code Sec. 607.056, which deals with the presumption of compensability for acute myocardial infarction or stroke for first responders. HB 673 makes substantive changes to the law (specifically portions of Chapter 501 of the Labor Code) governing compensability of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in first responders. SB 454 would create a presumption of “compensability of infertility for firefighters and emergency medical technicians”.
Exceptions to Exclusive Remedy: SB 220 would create an exception to the exclusive remedy provisions of the Texas WC Act under which an employee who is the victim of sexual assault or abuse may bring a cause of action against their employer if the employee is an individual with an “intellectual or developmental disability”, and their injuries arose from the employer’s negligence. HB 823 would expand the existing exceptions to the exclusive remedy provisions of the act for intentional act or omissions of the employer or the employer’s gross negligence to permit recovery by children and parents of the deceased employee, as well as by the employee’s estate. Presently Sec. 408.011(b) provides that exception for the surviving spouse and “heirs of the body” only.
Scope of Practice: SB 157 would double the number of days that a physical therapist could treat a patient without first obtaining a referral from a practitioner, from 10 to 20. HB 541 expands the direct patient care billing provisions of the Occupations Code to include any “health care practitioner”, rather than physicians only.
It must be emphasized that NONE of the bills referenced above have been enacted at this point, and it is possible that none of them will be. They are proposed legislation only for the time being. What the Texas legislature ultimately passes, and what Governor Abbott ultimately signs into law, remains to be seen and will not be known until we are well into 2025.
FOL will continue to monitor the prefiled bills and the legislative session once it gets under way, and will provide regular updates in FOLIO. Should you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us at gqs@fol.com.
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