76R13553 PAM-D                          
         By Duncan, et al.                                      S.B. No. 384
         Substitute the following for S.B. No. 384:
         By Brimer                                          C.S.S.B. No. 384
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to liens for certain services provided by physicians.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 55.004, Property Code, is amended to read
 1-5     as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 55.004.  AMOUNT OF LIEN.  (a)  The lien is for the
 1-7     amount of the hospital's charges for services provided to the
 1-8     injured individual during the first 100 days of the injured
 1-9     individual's hospitalization.
1-10           (b)  The lien may also include the amount of a physician's
1-11     reasonable and necessary charges for emergency care services
1-12     provided to the injured individual during the first seven days of
1-13     the injured individual's hospitalization.  At the request of the
1-14     physician, the hospital may act on behalf of the physician with
1-15     respect to securing and discharging the lien.  In this subsection,
1-16     "physician" does not include a physician who is a member of the
1-17     state legislature.
1-18           (c)  "Emergency care" means health care services received in
1-19     a hospital provided to evaluate and stabilize serious medical
1-20     conditions of a recent onset and severity, including but not
1-21     limited to severe pain that would lead a prudent layperson
1-22     possessing an average knowledge of medicine and health to believe
1-23     that his or her condition, sickness, or injury is of such a nature
1-24     that failure to get immediate medical care would in all reasonable
 2-1     probability:
 2-2                 (1)  place the patient's health in serious jeopardy;
 2-3                 (2)  seriously impair bodily functions;
 2-4                 (3)  cause serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or
 2-5     part;
 2-6                 (4)  cause serious disfigurement; or
 2-7                 (5)  in the case of a pregnant woman, seriously
 2-8     jeopardizing the health of the fetus.
 2-9           (d)  The [, except that the] lien does not cover:
2-10                 (1)  charges for operating costs that exceed the cost
2-11     limits established under Section 405.460, 42 Code of Federal
2-12     Regulations; [or]
2-13                 (2)  charges for other services that exceed a
2-14     reasonable and regular rate for the services; or
2-15                 (3)  any services for which the physician has accepted
2-16     insurance benefits or payment under any private medical indemnity
2-17     plan or program.
2-18           (e) [(b)]  The lien is not affected by a hospital's use of a
2-19     method of classifying patients according to their ability to pay
2-20     that is solely intended to obtain a lien for services provided to
2-21     an indigent injured individual.
2-22           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-23           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to
2-24     health care services provided by a physician on or after the
2-25     effective date of this Act.  Health care services provided by a
2-26     physician before the effective date of this Act are covered by the
2-27     law in effect at the time the services were provided, and the
 3-1     former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 3-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.