1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to physicians who may provide certain mental health
 1-3     services.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 571.003(18), Health and Safety Code, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7                 (18)  "Physician" means:
 1-8                       (A)  a person licensed to practice medicine in
 1-9     this state;
1-10                       (B)  [or]  a person employed by a federal agency
1-11     who has a license to practice medicine in any state; or
1-12                       (C)  a person authorized to perform medical acts
1-13     under an institutional permit at a Texas postgraduate training
1-14     program approved by the  Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical
1-15     Education, the American Osteopathic Association, or the Texas State
1-16     Board of Medical Examiners.
1-17           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 677 was passed by the House on March
         24, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 147, Nays 0, 1 present, not
         voting.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 677 was passed by the Senate on April
         29, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays 0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor