Amend HB 1951 (house committee printing) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTION to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:

SECTION ____.  Section 1451.153, Insurance Code, is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:

(a)  A managed care plan may not:

(1)  discriminate against a health care practitioner because the practitioner is an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist;

(2)  restrict or discourage a plan participant from obtaining covered vision or medical eye care services or procedures from a participating optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist solely because the practitioner is an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist;

(3)  exclude an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist as a participating practitioner in the plan because the optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist does not have medical staff privileges at a hospital or at a particular hospital; [or]

(4)  exclude an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist as a participating practitioner in the plan because the services or procedures provided by the optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or ophthalmologist may be provided by another type of health care practitioner; or

(5)  as a condition for a therapeutic optometrist or ophthalmologist to be included in one or more of the plan's medical panels, require the therapeutic optometrist or ophthalmologist to be included in, or to accept the terms of payment under or for, a particular vision panel in which the therapeutic optometrist or ophthalmologist does not otherwise wish to be included.

SECTION ____.  The change in law made by Section ____ of this Act applies only to a contract entered into or renewed by a therapeutic optometrist or ophthalmologist and an issuer of a managed care plan on or after January 1, 2012. A contract entered into or renewed before January 1, 2012 is governed by the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.