By McClendon H.B. No. 459
76R425 JMM-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the release of certain workers' compensation records to
1-3 certain persons.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 402.084(b) and (c), Labor Code, are
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (b) Information on a claim may be released as provided by
1-8 Subsection (a) to:
1-9 (1) the employee or the employee's legal beneficiary;
1-10 (2) the employee's or the legal beneficiary's
1-11 representative;
1-12 (3) the employer at the time of injury;
1-13 (4) the insurance carrier;
1-14 (5) the Texas Certified Self-Insurer Guaranty
1-15 Association established under Subchapter G, Chapter 407, if that
1-16 association has assumed the obligations of an impaired employer;
1-17 (6) the Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty
1-18 Association, if that association has assumed the obligations of an
1-19 impaired insurance company; [or]
1-20 (7) a third-party litigant in a lawsuit in which the
1-21 cause of action arises from the incident that gave rise to the
1-22 injury; or
1-23 (8) a litigant in a subsequent lawsuit in which the
1-24 employee's prior injury information may be relevant.
2-1 (c) The requirements of Subsection (a)(1) do not apply to a
2-2 request from a [third-party] litigant described by Subsection
2-3 (b)(7) or (8).
2-4 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-5 applies only to a request for information made with respect to a
2-6 suit that is commenced on or after that date. A request for
2-7 information made with respect to a suit commenced before the
2-8 effective date of this Act is governed by the law applicable to the
2-9 suit immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that
2-10 law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-11 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-12 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.