By:  Hochberg                                         H.B. No. 2011
       73R3125 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the application of preexisting condition provisions in
    1-3  certain group health plans.
    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 21.52C to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 21.52C.  PREEXISTING CONDITION PROVISIONS
    1-8        Sec. 1.  DEFINITIONS.  In this article:
    1-9              (1)  "Group health insurer" means a person that
   1-10  delivers, issues for delivery, or renews a group health plan in
   1-11  this state.
   1-12              (2)  "Group health plan" means a group health insurance
   1-13  policy, group hospital service contract, or group contract issued
   1-14  by a health maintenance organization that provides benefits for
   1-15  medical or surgical expenses incurred as a result of an accident or
   1-16  sickness.
   1-17              (3)  "Preexisting condition provision" means a
   1-18  provision in a group health plan that excludes coverage for
   1-19  expenses incurred during a specified period following the effective
   1-20  date of an individual's coverage for a condition that was manifest
   1-21  during a specified period before that effective date.
   1-22              (4)  "Waiting period" means the specified period
   1-23  following the effective date of an individual's coverage during
   1-24  which a preexisting condition provision applies.
    2-1        Sec. 2.  EFFECTIVE PERIOD OF PREEXISTING CONDITION PROVISION
    2-2  REDUCED.  A group health insurer shall reduce the length of the
    2-3  waiting period for an individual by the number of days the
    2-4  individual was covered by a previous group health plan if, not
    2-5  later than the 60th day after the date the individual's coverage
    2-6  under the previous group health plan terminated, the individual:
    2-7              (1)  becomes eligible and applies for coverage under
    2-8  the group health insurer's plan; or
    2-9              (2)  is covered under the group health insurer's plan.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-11  applies only to a group health plan that is delivered, issued for
   2-12  delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 1994.  A group health
   2-13  plan that is delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed before
   2-14  January 1, 1994, is governed by the law as it existed immediately
   2-15  before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
   2-16  effect for that purpose.
   2-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.