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.