By: Sheets, Fallon (Senate Sponsor - Huffman) H.B. No. 1468
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 2013;
May 10, 2013, read first time and referred to Committee on State
Affairs; May 20, 2013, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 5, Nays 2; May 20, 2013, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to confidential communications between an insurance
carrier and a covered employer under the Texas Workers'
Compensation Act.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 409.011, Labor Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(d) For purposes of this subsection, a reference to the
insurance carrier or covered employer includes the insurance
carrier's or covered employer's attorneys, consultants, sureties,
indemnitors, employees, third-party administrators, and other
agents. Communications between an insurance carrier and a covered
employer are confidential and not subject to disclosure if the
communications include information regarding mental impressions,
conclusions, opinions, claims-handling strategies, litigation
strategies, legal theories regarding the claim, claim status, claim
reserves, or proprietary business practices of the insurance
carrier or covered employer or other similar classes of information
and are made in furtherance of the covered employer's rights,
including rights described by Subsections (b)(1)-(5) and Section
415.002(b). An insurance carrier may refuse to disclose and may
prevent the disclosure by another person of confidential
communications described by this subsection. This subsection:
(1) does not apply to:
(A) communications between the insurance carrier
and covered employer that are offered as evidence in a judicial
proceeding between the insurance carrier and covered employer;
(B) communications made to the insurance carrier
by the covered employer in violation of Section 415.002(a)(6); or
(C) public records subject to Chapter 552,
Government Code; and
(2) does not affect:
(A) the requirement to exchange documentation
under Chapter 410; or
(B) the right of the commissioner to obtain
information from an insurance carrier or an employer.
SECTION 2. Section 409.011, Labor Code, as amended by this
Act, applies only to communications between an insurance carrier
and a covered employer made on or after the effective date of this
Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
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