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.