By:  Smithee                                           H.B. No. 717
       73R585 PB-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to qualified claims servicing contractors for workers'
    1-3  compensation insurance offered by certified self-insurers.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 3.51(5), Texas Workers' Compensation Act
    1-6  (Article 8308-3.51, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8              (5)<(A)>  "Qualified claims servicing contractor"
    1-9  means:
   1-10                    (A) <(i)>  an insurance company authorized by the
   1-11  State Board of Insurance to write workers' compensation insurance;
   1-12                    (B) <(ii)>  a subsidiary of an insurance company
   1-13  that provides claims service under contract; or
   1-14                    (C) <(iii)>  a third party administrator or
   1-15  certified self-insurer that has on the administrator's or
   1-16  self-insurer's <its> staff an individual licensed under Chapter
   1-17  407, Acts of the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article
   1-18  21.07-4, Vernon's Texas Insurance Code).
   1-19                    <(B)  A qualified claims servicing contractor
   1-20  must be a separate business entity from the certified
   1-21  self-insurer.>
   1-22        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.