By Averitt                                            H.B. No. 3000
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the collection, compiling, exchanging, and use of
    1-3  information related to criminal activity, fraud, material
    1-4  misrepresentation or nondisclosure in connection with an insurance
    1-5  transaction.
    1-6        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-7        SECTION 1.  The Texas Insurance Code is amended by adding an
    1-8  Article 21.79F to read as follows:
    1-9        Article 21.79F.  Any person, including any insurer,
   1-10  self-insurer, insurance support organization, agent, or employee of
   1-11  any of the foregoing may collect, compile, or furnish to or
   1-12  exchange with any other such person or furnish to any regulatory
   1-13  authority information to the extent deemed reasonably necessary by
   1-14  such person to detect or prevent criminal activity, fraud, material
   1-15  representation, or material non-disclosures in connection with any
   1-16  insurance transaction or any other matter in the business of
   1-17  insurance, including, but not limited to, the obtaining or the
   1-18  giving of information in connection with the underwriting or
   1-19  issuance of an insurance policy, the filing of an insurance claim,
   1-20  or the making of a claim against any person, business, corporation,
   1-21  or governmental entity where it is contemplated that such a person,
   1-22  business, corporation, or governmental entity would be indemnified
   1-23  by an insurance liability policy.  In the absence of malice or
    2-1  intentional fraud, no person who collects, compiles, or furnishes
    2-2  to or exchanges with any other person or furnishes to any
    2-3  regulatory authority information in accordance with this Article
    2-4  shall be held liable in a civil action or subject to any criminal
    2-5  prosecution because of any such action.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect on September 1, 1995.
    2-7        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.