76R10792 DB-D                           
         By Van de Putte                                       H.B. No. 1750
         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1750:
         By Wise                                           C.S.H.B. No. 1750
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to standards for utilization review.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 4, Article 21.58A, Insurance Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Subsection (o) to read as follows:
 1-6           (o)  A utilization review agent may not require, as a
 1-7     condition of treatment approval or for any other reason, the
 1-8     observation of a psychotherapy session or the submission or review
 1-9     of a mental health therapist's process or progress notes.
1-10     Notwithstanding this subsection, a utilization review agent may
1-11     require submission of a patient's medical record.
1-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-13     applies only to a utilization review conducted on or after that
1-14     date.
1-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.