By Bernsen                                            S.B. No. 1106
         77R8433 PB-F                           
                                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. Section 1.03(a)(3), Medical Liability and
 1-7     Insurance Improvement Act of Texas (Article 4590i, Vernon's Texas
 1-8     Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
 1-9                 (3)  "Health care provider" means any person,
1-10     partnership, professional association, corporation, facility, or
1-11     institution duly licensed or chartered by the State of Texas to
1-12     provide health care as a registered nurse, hospital, dentist,
1-13     podiatrist, pharmacist, optometrist or therapeutic optometrist, or
1-14     nursing home, or an officer, employee, or agent thereof acting in
1-15     the course and scope of his employment.
1-16           SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2001, and
1-17     applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after that
1-18     date.  A cause of action that accrued before the effective date of
1-19     this Act is governed by the law applicable to the action
1-20     immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
1-21     continued in effect for that purpose.