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.