84R19030 KKR-D
By: Sheets H.B. No. 687
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 687:
By: Fletcher C.S.H.B. No. 687
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. Subchapter A, Chapter 409, Labor Code, is
amended by adding Section 409.0115 to read as follows:
Sec. 409.0115. CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS. (a) For
purposes of this section, a reference to an 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.
(b) 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 Sections 409.011(b)(1)-(5)
and Section 415.002(b).
(c) An insurance carrier may refuse to disclose and may
prevent the disclosure by another person of confidential
communications described by this section.
(d) This section:
(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 which the employer dictates the methods
by which and the terms on which the claim is handled and settled; 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 covered employer under
this subtitle.
(e) An insurance carrier or covered employer is required to
disclose any communications, including confidential communications
described by this section, that are requested by the commissioner
in order to detect and address acts or practices of noncompliance
with this subtitle and rules adopted under this subtitle.
SECTION 2. Section 409.0115, Labor Code, as added 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, 2015.