By Hochberg                                           H.B. No. 1826
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to supplemental income benefits under the workers'
 1-3     compensation system.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 408, Labor Code, is amended
 1-6     by adding Section 408.151 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 408.151.  MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL INCOME
 1-8     BENEFITS.  (a)  On or after the second anniversary of the date the
 1-9     commission makes the initial award of supplemental income benefits,
1-10     an insurance carrier may  not require an employee who is receiving
1-11     supplemental income benefits to submit to a medical examination
1-12     more than annually if, in the preceding year, the employee's
1-13     medical condition resulting from the compensable injury has not
1-14     improved sufficiently to allow the employee to return to work.
1-15           (b)  If a dispute exists as to whether the employee's medical
1-16     condition has improved sufficiently to allow the employee to return
1-17     to work, the commission shall direct the employee to be examined by
1-18     a designated doctor chosen by the commission.  The designated
1-19     doctor shall report to the commission.  The report of the
1-20     designated doctor has presumptive weight, and the commission shall
1-21     base its determination of whether the employee's medical condition
1-22     has improved sufficiently to allow the employee to return to work
1-23     on that report unless the great weight of the other medical
1-24     evidence is to the contrary.
 2-1           (c)  The commission may require an employee to whom
 2-2     Subsection (a) applies to submit to a medical examination under
 2-3     Section 408.004 only to determine whether the employee's medical
 2-4     condition is a direct result of impairment from a compensable
 2-5     injury.
 2-6           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-7           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.