By: Duncan, Harris S.B. No. 384
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to liens for certain services provided by physicians.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Section 55.004, Property Code, is amended to read
1-4 as follows:
1-5 Sec. 55.004. AMOUNT OF LIEN. (a) The lien is for the
1-6 amount of the hospital's charges for services provided to the
1-7 injured individual during the first 100 days of the injured
1-8 individual's hospitalization.
1-9 (b) The lien may also include the amount of a physician's
1-10 reasonable and necessary charges for emergency care services
1-11 provided to the injured individual during the first seven days of
1-12 the injured individual's hospitalization. At the request of the
1-13 physician, the hospital may act on behalf of the physician with
1-14 respect to securing and discharging the lien.
1-15 (c) "Emergency care" means health care services received in
1-16 a hospital provided to evaluate and stabilize serious medical
1-17 conditions of a recent onset and severity, including but not
1-18 limited to severe pain that would lead a prudent layperson
1-19 possessing an average knowledge of medicine and health to believe
1-20 that his or her condition, sickness, or injury is of such a nature
1-21 that failure to get immediate medical care would in all reasonable
1-22 probability:
1-23 (1) place the patient's health in serious jeopardy;
1-24 (2) seriously impair bodily functions;
2-1 (3) cause serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or
2-2 part;
2-3 (4) cause serious disfigurement; or
2-4 (5) in the case of a pregnant woman, seriously
2-5 jeopardize the health of the fetus.
2-6 (d) The[, except that the] lien does not cover:
2-7 (1) charges for operating costs that exceed the cost
2-8 limits established under Section 405.460, 42 Code of Federal
2-9 Regulations; [or]
2-10 (2) charges for other services that exceed a
2-11 reasonable and regular rate for the services; or
2-12 (3) any services for which the physician has accepted
2-13 insurance benefits or payment under any private medical indemnity
2-14 plan or program.
2-15 (e) [(b)] The lien is not affected by a hospital's use of a
2-16 method of classifying patients according to their ability to pay
2-17 that is solely intended to obtain a lien for services provided to
2-18 an indigent injured individual.
2-19 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-20 (b) The change in law made by this Act applies only to
2-21 health care services provided by a physician on or after the
2-22 effective date of this Act. Health care services provided by a
2-23 physician before the effective date of this Act are covered by the
2-24 law in effect at the time the services were provided, and the
2-25 former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-26 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-1 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-2 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-3 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-4 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.