76R10323 JMM-D
By Ritter H.B. No. 2513
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2513:
By Ritter C.S.H.B. No. 2513
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain workers' compensation benefits and procedures
1-3 designed to enable an injured worker to return to work.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 408.150, Labor Code, is amended to read
1-6 as follows:
1-7 Sec. 408.150. VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION. (a) The
1-8 commission shall refer an employee to the Texas Rehabilitation
1-9 Commission with a recommendation for appropriate services if the
1-10 commission determines that an employee entitled to supplemental
1-11 income benefits could be materially assisted by vocational
1-12 rehabilitation or training in returning to employment or returning
1-13 to employment more nearly approximating the employee's preinjury
1-14 employment. The commission shall also notify carriers of the need
1-15 for vocational rehabilitation or training services. The carrier
1-16 may provide services through a private provider of vocational
1-17 rehabilitation services under Section 409.012.
1-18 (b) An employee who refuses services or refuses to cooperate
1-19 with services provided under this section by the Texas
1-20 Rehabilitation Commission or a private provider loses entitlement
1-21 to supplemental [supplementary] income benefits.
1-22 SECTION 2. Section 409.012, Labor Code, is amended by adding
1-23 Subsection (e) to read as follows:
1-24 (e) The commission by rule may require that a private
2-1 provider of vocational rehabilitation services maintain certain
2-2 credentials and qualifications in order to provide services in
2-3 connection with a workers' compensation insurance claim.
2-4 SECTION 3. Section 413.018, Labor Code, is amended by
2-5 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c)-(e) to read as
2-6 follows:
2-7 (a) The commission by rule shall provide for the periodic
2-8 review of medical care provided in claims in which [lost-time]
2-9 guidelines for expected or average return to work time frames [or
2-10 other appropriate guidelines] are exceeded.
2-11 (c) The commission shall implement a program to encourage
2-12 employers and treating doctors to discuss the availability of
2-13 modified duty to encourage the safe and more timely return to work
2-14 of injured employees. The commission may require a treating or
2-15 examining doctor, on the request of the employer, insurance
2-16 carrier, or commission, to provide a functional capacity evaluation
2-17 of an injured employee and to determine the employee's ability to
2-18 engage in physical activities found in the workplace or in
2-19 activities that are required in a modified duty setting.
2-20 (d) The commission shall provide through the commission's
2-21 health and safety information and medical review outreach programs
2-22 information to employers regarding effective return to work
2-23 programs. This section does not require an employer to provide
2-24 modified duty or an employee to accept a modified duty assignment.
2-25 An employee who does not accept an employer's offer of modified
2-26 duty determined by the commission to be a bona-fide job offer is
2-27 subject to Section 408.103(e).
3-1 (e) The commission may adopt rules and forms as necessary to
3-2 implement this section.
3-3 SECTION 4. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-4 (b) The Texas Workers' Compensation Commission shall
3-5 implement the program required by Section 413.018(c), Labor Code,
3-6 as added by this Act, not later than January 1, 2000.
3-7 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.