By: Eltife  S.B. No. 653
         (In the Senate - Filed February 19, 2015; February 24, 2015,
  read first time and referred to Committee on Business and Commerce;
  March 23, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 8,
  Nays 1; March 23, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to increasing the amount of burial benefits required to be
  paid by an insurance carrier under the workers' compensation
  system.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 408.186(a), Labor Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         (a)  If the death of an employee results from a compensable
  injury, the insurance carrier shall pay to the person who incurred
  liability for the costs of burial the lesser of:
               (1)  the actual costs incurred for reasonable burial
  expenses; or
               (2)  $10,000 [$6,000].
         SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies to a
  claim for workers' compensation burial 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
  the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
  the date the compensable injury occurred, and the former law is
  continued in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
 
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