1-1     By:  Hochberg (Senate Sponsor - Duncan)               H.B. No. 1826
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 3, 1999;
 1-3     May 4, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Economic
 1-4     Development; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to supplemental income benefits under the workers'
 1-9     compensation system.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 408, Labor Code, is amended
1-12     by adding Section 408.151 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 408.151.  MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL INCOME
1-14     BENEFITS.  (a)  On or after the second anniversary of the date the
1-15     commission makes the initial award of supplemental income benefits,
1-16     an insurance carrier may  not require an employee who is receiving
1-17     supplemental income benefits to submit to a medical examination
1-18     more than annually if, in the preceding year, the employee's
1-19     medical condition resulting from the compensable injury has not
1-20     improved sufficiently to allow the employee to return to work.
1-21           (b)  If a dispute exists as to whether the employee's medical
1-22     condition has improved sufficiently to allow the employee to return
1-23     to work, the commission shall direct the employee to be examined by
1-24     a designated doctor chosen by the commission.  The designated
1-25     doctor shall report to the commission.  The report of the
1-26     designated doctor has presumptive weight, and the commission shall
1-27     base its determination of whether the employee's medical condition
1-28     has improved sufficiently to allow the employee to return to work
1-29     on that report unless the great weight of the other medical
1-30     evidence is to the contrary.
1-31           (c)  The commission may require an employee to whom
1-32     Subsection (a) applies to submit to a medical examination under
1-33     Section 408.004 only to determine whether the employee's medical
1-34     condition is a direct result of impairment from a compensable
1-35     injury.
1-36           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-37           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-38     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-39     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-40     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-41     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-42                                  * * * * *