By Lewis of Tarrant                                   H.B. No. 3179
         76R9213 T                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to unfair trade practices in the business of insurance;
 1-3     providing administrative and civil penalties.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 4, Article 21.21, Insurance Code is
 1-6     amended by amending Subsection (4) to read as follows:
 1-7                 (4)  Boycott, Coercion and Intimidation.  Entering into
 1-8     any agreement to commit, or by any concerted action committing, any
 1-9     act of boycott, coercion or intimidation resulting in or tending to
1-10     result in unreasonable restraint of, or monopoly in, the business
1-11     of insurance.  For the purposes of this section, coercion includes
1-12     an action or agreement by any entity subject to this code that
1-13     offers multiple health plans or products and which requires a
1-14     health care provider, as a condition of participation in a health
1-15     plan or product of the entity, to participate in any of the
1-16     entity's other health plans or products.
1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.