79R10973 PB-F
By: Armbrister S.B. No. 1815
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 408.0295 to read as follows:
Sec. 408.0295. 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 applies only to a claim for workers'
compensation benefits based on a compensable injury that occurs on
or after the effective date of this Act. 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.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.