Highlights of the 79th Texas Legislature - Senate

WORKER'S COMPENSATION
Prohibits the misuse of the division's name or symbols and imposes civil and administrative penalties.
Provides that an employee of The University of Texas System or The Texas A&M University System may elect to use
and exhaust accrued sick or annual leave before receiving income benefits.
Creates the Workers' Compensation Health Care Network Act, which authorizes the establishment of workers'
compensation care networks (networks) by workers' compensation insurance carriers and employers.
Requires the group to conduct research on the impact of networks, evaluate the cost and quality of health care
provided by those networks, and issue annual report cards comparing the networks.
Provides that a political subdivision that self-insures must provide workers' compensation coverage through a
network if the governing body determines that provision of such benefits through a network is available to the
employees and practical for the subdivision.
Requires the commissioner in every even-numbered year to report to the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker
of the house of representatives regarding the impact of the reforms in this Act on workers' compensation and sets out
what this analysis must include.
Authorizes the commissioner, if the commissioner subsequently disapproves the rate or filing on which a premium
was based, to impose certain sanctions.
Defines underwriting guidelines regarding workers' compensation insurance and provides that such guidelines must
be sound, actuarially justified or otherwise commensurate with the contemplated risk, and may not be unfairly
discriminatory.
Requires the commissioner to hold each biennium, beginning no later than December 1, 2008, a public hearing to
review rates charged for workers' compensation coverage.
Makes conforming and technical changes.
Work-Related Exposure to a Reportable Disease─S.B. 665
By Senator Barrientos—House Sponsor: Representative Naishtat
Current law provides that a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, an emergency medical service employee or
paramedic, or a correctional officer may request a health authority to order testing of another person who may have
exposed the person to a reportable disease, including HIV infection. In a county jail setting or other correctional
facility, individuals such as nurses or counselors may be exposed to a reportable disease, but are not included under
current law. This bill:
Adds an employee, contractor, or volunteer who performs a service in a correctional, secure correctional, or secure
detention facility to the list of persons who may request testing of another person who may have exposed them to a
reportable disease.
282 HIGHLIGHTS - 79 TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE