BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1683

By: Fletcher

Transportation

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Chiropractors, as well as other health care providers, treat patients with conditions that affect mobility, but do not handle requests for specialized license plates and parking placards for the vehicle of a person with a mobility problem.  Minimizing the number of health care providers that a patient must visit in order to make this request may reduce costs incurred by the patient in terms of money, time, and additional pain.  C.S.H.B. 1683 seeks to address this issue by authorizing chiropractors licensed in Texas and adjacent states to complete a request for specialized license plates and parking placards for the vehicle of a person with a mobility problem.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1683 amends the Transportation Code to authorize the notarized written statement or written prescription required by law to accompany an initial application for a disabled parking placard for the vehicle of a person with a temporary mobility problem that substantially impairs the person's ability to ambulate to be issued by a person licensed to practice chiropractic in Texas or a state adjacent to Texas.  The bill requires an application for a disabled parking placard to be submitted to the county assessor-collector of the county in which the person with the disability resides or is being treated at a medical facility if the person has a temporary disability. The bill specifies that the requirement for such an application otherwise to be submitted to the county assessor-collector by a person with a disability applies to the assessor-collector of the county in which the person resides if the person has a permanent disability. The bill provides for the definition of "chiropractic" by reference to the Occupations Code.  The bill makes conforming changes.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1683 omits a provision in the original relating to the authorization for a person licensed to practice chiropractic or a person licensed to practice podiatry to process the initial application for specialty license plates for a person with a mobility problem. The substitute contains a provision not included in the original requiring an application for a disabled parking placard to be submitted to the county assessor-collector of certain counties based on a person's temporary or permanent disability. The substitute differs from the original by making the provision authorizing a person licensed to practice chiropractic to issue a notarized statement or prescription in a first application for a disabled parking placard made by or on behalf of a person with a mobility problem apply to a person with a temporary mobility problem.