By:  Bernsen                                          S.B. No. 1106
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the application of the Medical Liability and Insurance
 1-3     Improvement Act of Texas to optometrists and therapeutic
 1-4     optometrists.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subdivision (3), Subsection (a), Section 1.03,
 1-7     Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act of Texas (Article
 1-8     4590i, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as
 1-9     follows:
1-10                 (3)  "Health care provider" means any person,
1-11     partnership, professional association, corporation, facility, or
1-12     institution duly licensed or chartered by the State of Texas to
1-13     provide health care as a registered nurse, hospital, dentist,
1-14     podiatrist, pharmacist, optometrist or therapeutic optometrist, or
1-15     nursing home, or an officer, employee, or agent thereof acting in
1-16     the course and scope of his employment.
1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001, and
1-18     applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after that
1-19     date.  A cause of action that accrued before the effective date of
1-20     this Act is governed by the law applicable to the action
1-21     immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
1-22     continued in effect for that purpose.