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.