Texas Attorney General Opinion: JM-1270 Page: 3 of 9
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Honorable Chet Brooks
Honorable Bob McFarland
Page 3 (JM-1270)
1981, 67th Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 7, 5 1, at 63. The 1981 act
also required that "benefits so provided shall be determined
as if necessary care and treatment in an alcohol or other
drug dependency treatment center were care and treatment in
a hospital." Id at 64.
In Attorney General Opinion JM-5 (1983), we held that
the 1981 act required a provider of a group health insurance
policy or contract within the scope of the act to offer and
make available to their insureds benefits for alcohol and
other drug dependency subject to their rejection. In addi-
tion, we construed the language of the 1981 act stating that
benefits provided for treatment in an authorized alcohol or
other drug dependency treatment center constituted "care and
treatment in a hospital" to mean that insurers within the
scope of the act could not discriminate against authorized
alcohol and other drug dependency centers and thus could
not deny coverage for treatment provided by such centers
on the basis that they were not hospitals. Furthermore,
relying on section 3 of article 3.51-6 of the code, which
states that chapter 3 insurers may not require services to
be rendered by a particular provider, we also held that
chapter 3 insurers must provide coverage for drug dependency
treatment provided in any authorized center.
Subsequent to our opinion, the legislature in 1985
passed Senate Bill 601 and thereby amended article 3.51-9.
Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 632, 5 12, at 2338. Section 12 of
Senate Bill 601 made the following two major changes to
article 3.51-9:
(1) restricted article 3.51-9 to the care
and treatment of alcohol dependency by
deleting all references to care and treatment
for other drug dependency; and
(2) required coverage of the care and
treatment of alcohol dependency by stating
that insurers and other health care providers
within the scope of the act 'shall provide'
benefits for the care and treatment of
alcohol dependency and not just 'offer and
make available' such coverage subject to
rejection by the insured.
See id.; see also Bill Analysis, C.S.S.B. 601, 69th Leg.
(1985) (bill mandates coverage for alcohol dependency byp. 6794
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: JM-1270, text, December 21, 1990; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth273708/m1/3/?q=%22%5B1990..%5D%22: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.