1-1     By:  Ritter (Senate Sponsor - Armbrister)             H.B. No. 2513
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 23, 1999;
 1-3     April 26, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Economic Development; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to certain workers' compensation benefits and procedures
 1-9     designed to  enable an injured worker to return to work.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 408.150, Labor Code, is amended to read
1-12     as follows:
1-13           Sec. 408.150.  VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION.  (a)  The
1-14     commission shall refer an employee to the Texas Rehabilitation
1-15     Commission with a recommendation for appropriate services if the
1-16     commission determines that an employee entitled to supplemental
1-17     income benefits could be materially assisted by vocational
1-18     rehabilitation or training in returning to employment or returning
1-19     to employment more nearly approximating the employee's preinjury
1-20     employment.  The commission shall also notify insurance carriers of
1-21     the need for vocational rehabilitation or training services.  The
1-22     insurance carrier may provide services through a private provider
1-23     of vocational rehabilitation services under Section 409.012.
1-24           (b)  An employee who refuses services or refuses to cooperate
1-25     with services provided under this section by the Texas
1-26     Rehabilitation Commission or a private provider loses entitlement
1-27     to supplemental [supplementary] income benefits.
1-28           SECTION 2.  Section 409.012, Labor Code, is amended by adding
1-29     Subsection (e) to read as follows:
1-30           (e)  The commission by rule may require that a private
1-31     provider of vocational rehabilitation services maintain certain
1-32     credentials and qualifications in order to provide services in
1-33     connection with a workers' compensation insurance claim.
1-34           SECTION 3.  Section 413.018, Labor Code, is amended by
1-35     amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c)-(e) to read as
1-36     follows:
1-37           (a)  The commission by rule shall provide for the periodic
1-38     review of medical care provided in claims in which [lost-time]
1-39     guidelines for expected or average return to work time frames [or
1-40     other appropriate guidelines] are exceeded.
1-41           (c)  The commission shall implement a program to encourage
1-42     employers and treating doctors to discuss the availability of
1-43     modified duty to  encourage the safe and more timely return to work
1-44     of injured employees.  The commission may require a treating or
1-45     examining doctor, on the request of the employer, insurance
1-46     carrier, or commission, to provide a functional capacity evaluation
1-47     of an injured employee and to determine the employee's ability to
1-48     engage in physical activities found in the workplace or in
1-49     activities that are required in a modified duty setting.
1-50           (d)  The commission shall provide through the commission's
1-51     health and safety information and medical review outreach programs
1-52     information to employers regarding effective return to work
1-53     programs.  This section does not require an employer to provide
1-54     modified duty or an employee to accept a modified duty assignment.
1-55     An employee who does not accept an employer's offer of modified
1-56     duty determined by the commission to be a bona fide job offer is
1-57     subject to Section 408.103(e).
1-58           (e)  The commission may adopt rules and forms as necessary to
1-59     implement this section.
1-60           SECTION 4.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-61           (b)  The Texas Workers' Compensation Commission shall
1-62     implement the program required by Section 413.018(c), Labor Code,
1-63     as added by this Act, not later than January 1, 2000.
1-64           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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