Amend SB 781 by striking SECTIONS 3 and 4 and adding new
SECTIONS 3, 4, and 5.
      SECTION 3.  Section 3, Art. 3.70-3C, Insurance Code, is
amended to add a new subsection (o) to read as follows:
      (o) For purposes of this subsection, "Hospitalist" means a
physician who becomes a physician of record at a hospital for a
patient of a participating podiatrist and who may return the care
of the patient to that podiatrist at the end of the
hospitalization.  Any insurer which markets or sponsors a preferred
provider benefit plan  in its contracts with a podiatrist shall not
require the mandatory use of a hospitalist.
      SECTION 4.  Section 18A, Texas Health Maintenance
Organization Act (Article 20A.18A, Vernon's Texas Insurance Code)
is amended to add a new subsection (k) to read as follows:
      (k) For purposes of this subsection, "Hospitalist" means a
physician who becomes a physician of record at a hospital for a
patient of a participating podiatrist and who may return the care
of the patient to that podiatrist at the end of the
hospitalization.  A contract between a health maintenance
organization and a podiatrist shall not require the mandatory use
of a hospitalist.
      SECTION 5.  The importance of the legislation and the crowded
condition of the calendars in both houses create an emergency and
an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule
requiring bills to be read on three several days in each house be
suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.