BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1872

By: Giddings

State Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Workers' compensation is an issue of vital importance to working Texans, yet its degree of complexity often leaves workers unclear about or unaware of their rights to care and benefits or how to exercise such rights to receive such care and benefits. H.B. 1872 seeks to address a worker's need to be better informed about such matters by clarifying the requirement for providing information to employees covered by workers' compensation health care networks and specifying a venue to resolve disputes regarding the issue of whether a carrier properly provided the health care information.

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

H.B. 1872 amends the Insurance Code to establish, in provisions requiring an employer to provide its employees an accurate written description of the terms and conditions for obtaining health care within the service area of the employee's workers' compensation health care network, that an issue regarding whether an employer properly provided that information to an employee may be resolved using the process for adjudication of workers' compensation disputes, as used by the division of workers' compensation of the Texas Department of Insurance. The bill establishes, in the requirement that the insurance carrier that established or contracted with a workers' compensation health care network provide such information to an injured employee under provisions relating to the employee's selection of a treating doctor, that an issue regarding whether the carrier properly provided the required information to an employee may be resolved using the process for adjudication of workers' compensation disputes, as used by the division.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.