Amend CSSB 1468 by striking all below the enacting clause and
substituting the following:
      SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 21, Insurance Code, is
amended by adding Article 21.52Z to read as follows:
      Art. 21.52Z.  INTERIM STUDY ON PHYSICIAN JOINT NEGOTIATION
      Sec. 1.  INTERIM STUDY.  (a)  The department shall conduct a
study as provided by this article to examine whether physician
joint negotiation is needed to improve access to health care in
this state.
      (b)  The commissioner shall ensure that the department, in
conducting the interim study, provides an opportunity for
representatives of the following groups, and the oversight bodies
or commissions of those groups, to provide information and advice
to the department regarding the issues to be examined:
            (1)  physician organizations;
            (2)  insurers, health maintenance organizations, and
other persons who offer health benefit plans;
            (3)  consumer groups; and
            (4)  organizations of business entities.
      (c)  The interim study shall examine:
            (1)  whether there is an undesirable domination of the
health care market in this state by health maintenance
organizations;
            (2)  whether health maintenance organizations have a
deleterious effect on the quality or quantity of the delivery of
health care in this state;
            (3)  whether physicians are currently restrained from
the ability to freely make professional decisions, in consultation
with their affected patients, that are in the best interests of
patient care;
            (4)  any other aspect of the issue of physician joint
negotiation that the department determines is appropriate for
inclusion in the study; and
            (5)  whether determinations made under Subdivisions
(1)-(4) of this subsection merit legislative authorization of
physician joint negotiations on issues regarding physician fees and
other areas of dispute between physicians and persons who offer
health benefit plans in this state.
      Sec. 2.  REPORT TO LEGISLATURE.  The commissioner shall
submit to the 77th Legislature a written report regarding the
findings of the interim study, accompanied by any proposals for
recommended legislation.  The commissioner shall submit the report
not later than February 1, 2001.
      Sec. 3.  EXPIRATION.  This article expires March 1, 2001.
      SECTION 2.  The importance of this 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,
and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
passage, and it is so enacted.