By:  Nelson                                            S.B. No. 569
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to standards for utilization review.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 4, Article 21.58A, Insurance Code, is
 1-4     amended by adding Subsection (o) to read as follows:
 1-5           (o)  A utilization review agent may not require, as a
 1-6     condition of treatment approval or for any other reason, the
 1-7     observation of a psychotherapy session or the submission or review
 1-8     of a mental health therapist's process or progress notes.
 1-9     Notwithstanding this subsection, a utilization review agent may
1-10     require submission of such records as are necessary to demonstrate
1-11     policy coverage.
1-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-13     applies only to a utilization review conducted on or after that
1-14     date.
1-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-20                          COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
1-21           Amend SB 569 to read as follows:
1-22           In the second sentence of Subsection (o), delete the phrase
1-23     "of such records as are necessary to demonstrate policy coverage"
1-24     and insert the phrase "of a patient's medical record summary."
 2-1                                                                  Seaman