By Hochberg H.B. No. 1826
76R5418 CMR-D
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. Section 408.143, Labor Code, is amended to read
1-6 as follows:
1-7 Sec. 408.143. EMPLOYEE STATEMENT. (a) After the
1-8 commission's initial determination of supplemental income benefits,
1-9 the employee must file a statement with the insurance carrier
1-10 stating:
1-11 (1) that the employee has earned less than 80 percent
1-12 of the employee's average weekly wage as a direct result of the
1-13 employee's impairment;
1-14 (2) the amount of wages the employee earned in the
1-15 filing period provided by Subsection (b); and
1-16 (3) that the employee has in good faith sought
1-17 employment commensurate with the employee's ability to work.
1-18 (b) The statement required under this section must be filed
1-19 [quarterly] on a form and in the manner provided by the commission.
1-20 Except as provided by Subsection (c), the statement must be filed
1-21 quarterly.
1-22 (c) On or after the second anniversary of the date the
1-23 commission makes the initial award of supplemental income benefits,
1-24 the employee may file an annual report if in the one-year period
2-1 preceding the date of the report being filed the employee has shown
2-2 no improvement.
2-3 (d) The commission may modify the filing period as
2-4 appropriate to an individual case.
2-5 (e) [(c)] Failure to file a statement under this section
2-6 relieves the insurance carrier of liability for supplemental income
2-7 benefits for the period during which a statement is not filed.
2-8 SECTION 2. Subchapter H, Chapter 408, Labor Code, is amended
2-9 by adding Section 408.151 to read as follows:
2-10 Sec. 408.151. MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL INCOME
2-11 BENEFITS. (a) On or after the second anniversary of the date the
2-12 commission makes the initial award of supplemental income benefits,
2-13 an insurance carrier may not require an employee who is receiving
2-14 supplemental income benefits to submit to a medical examination
2-15 more than annually if, in the preceding year, the employee's
2-16 medical condition resulting from the compensable injury has not
2-17 improved.
2-18 (b) This section does not apply to a medical examination
2-19 required by the commission under Section 408.004.
2-20 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-21 applies only to an employee statement stating eligibility for
2-22 supplemental income benefits filed with an insurance carrier on or
2-23 after that date. A statement filed before that date is governed by
2-24 the law in effect on the date that the statement was filed, and the
2-25 former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-26 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-27 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-1 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-2 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-3 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.