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78R11546 PB-D


By:  Capelo                                                       H.B. No. 3000

Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3000:                                   

By:  Elkins                                                   C.S.H.B. No. 3000



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to reimbursement under the workers' compensation system 
for certain surgical assistants.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 408, Labor Code, is 
amended by adding Section 408.030 to read as follows:
	Sec. 408.030.  SURGICAL ASSISTANT SERVICES.  (a)  An 
insurance carrier may not refuse to reimburse a health care 
practitioner solely because the practitioner is a surgical 
assistant licensed under Chapter 206, Occupations Code, or a 
surgical first assistant certified by a national certifying 
organization approved by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners 
for a covered service that a physician providing health care 
services under this subtitle has requested the surgical assistant 
to perform.
	(b)  A surgical assistant described by this section shall be 
reimbursed on the same basis as a physician assistant, nurse 
practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist who functions as a first  
assistant in surgery.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2003, and 
applies only to a claim for workers' compensation benefits based on 
a compensable injury that occurs on or after that date.  A claim 
based on a compensable injury that occurs before that date is 
governed by the law in effect on the date that the compensable 
injury occurred, and the former law is continued in effect for that 
purpose.