By Luna                                         S.B. No. 1118

      75R4957 PB-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to qualifications for service as a designated doctor under

 1-3     the workers' compensation system.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 408.122(b), Labor Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (b)  To be eligible to serve as a designated doctor, a doctor

 1-8     must meet specific qualifications, including training in the

 1-9     determination of impairment ratings.  The executive director shall

1-10     develop qualification standards and administrative policies to

1-11     implement this subsection, and the commission may adopt rules as

1-12     necessary.  To the extent possible, a designated doctor must be a

1-13     physician who practices in a medical specialty relating to the

1-14     human body part, system, or condition affected by the claimant's

1-15     compensable injury [in the same discipline and licensed by the same

1-16     board of examiners as the employee's doctor of choice].

1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-18     applies only to a contested impairment rating in a workers'

1-19     compensation claim that is filed with the Texas Workers'

1-20     Compensation Commission on or after that date.  A claim filed

1-21     before that date is governed by the law in effect on the date that

1-22     the claim was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for

1-23     that purpose.

1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.