By:  Berlanga                                         H.B. No. 1191
       73R4311 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to use of osteopathic hospitals by health maintenance and
    1-3  preferred provider organizations.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 21, Insurance Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 21.53B to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 21.53B.  USE OF OSTEOPATHIC HOSPITAL BY HEALTH
    1-8  MAINTENANCE AND PREFERRED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS.  (a)  A health
    1-9  maintenance or preferred provider organization that contracts with
   1-10  a hospital to provide services to covered individuals may not
   1-11  refuse to contract with a particular hospital solely because that
   1-12  hospital is an osteopathic hospital.
   1-13        (b)  A health maintenance or preferred provider organization
   1-14  that provides benefits for inpatient or outpatient services
   1-15  provided by allopathic hospitals shall also provide, at the option
   1-16  of a covered person, benefits for similar services provided by an
   1-17  osteopathic hospital if there is an osteopathic hospital within the
   1-18  service area of the health maintenance or preferred provider
   1-19  organization.
   1-20        (c)  The board may adopt rules to implement this article.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-22  applies only to a contract made or renewed on or after January 1,
   1-23  1994.  A contract made or renewed before January 1, 1994, is
   1-24  governed by the law in effect immediately before the effective date
    2-1  of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.