Amend SB 684 (house committee printing) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering the subsequent SECTIONS accordingly:
SECTION ____. Subchapter D, Chapter 1451, Insurance Code, is amended by adding Section 1451.156 to read as follows:
Sec. 1451.156. PROHIBITED CONDUCT. (a) A managed care plan may not directly or indirectly:
(1) control or attempt to control the professional judgment, manner of practice, or practice of an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist;
(2) employ an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist if part of the optometrist's or therapeutic optometrist's duties involves the practice of optometry or therapeutic optometry;
(3) pay an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist for a service not provided;
(4) restrict or limit an optometrist's or therapeutic optometrist's choice of sources or suppliers of services or materials, including optical laboratories used by the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to provide services or materials to a patient; or
(5) require an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to disclose a patient's confidential or protected health information unless the disclosure is authorized by the patient or permitted without authorization under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. Section 1320d et seq.) or under Section 602.053.
(b) Subsection (a)(3) does not prohibit the use of capitation as a method of payment.
(c) Subsection (a)(4) does not restrict or limit a managed care plan's determination of specific amounts of coverage or reimbursement for the use of network or out-of-network suppliers or laboratories.
(d) This section shall be liberally construed to prevent managed care plans from controlling or attempting to control the professional judgment, manner of practice, or practice of an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist.
SECTION ____. Section 1451.156, Insurance Code, as added by this Act, applies only to a contract between a managed care plan issuer and an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist entered into or renewed, or a managed care plan delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed, on or after September 1, 2015. A contract entered into or renewed, or a plan delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed, before September 1, 2015, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before that date, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.