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AN ACT concerning the workers compensation act, relating to the defi-
  nition of health care provider thereunder; amending K.S.A. 1996 Supp.
  44-508 and repealing the existing section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
  Section 1.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 44-508 is hereby amended to read as
follows: 44-508. As used in the workers compensation act:
  (a)  ``Employer'' includes: (1) Any person or body of persons, corpo-
rate or unincorporate, and the legal representative of a deceased em-
ployer or the receiver or trustee of a person, corporation, association or
partnership; (2) the state or any department, agency or authority of the
state, any city, county, school district or other political subdivision or
municipality or public corporation and any instrumentality thereof; and
  (3) for the purposes of community service work, the entity for which the
community service work is being performed and the governmental agency
which assigned the community service work, if any, if either such entity
or such governmental agency has filed a written statement of election
with the director to accept the provisions under the workers compensa-
tion act for persons performing community service work and in such case
such entity and such governmental agency shall be deemed to be the joint
employer of the person performing the community service work and both
shall have the rights, liabilities and immunities provided under the work-
ers compensation act for an employer with regard to the community serv-
ice work, except that the liability for providing benefits shall be imposed
only on the party which filed such election with the director, or on both
if both parties have filed such election with the director; for purposes of
community service work, ``governmental agency'' shall not include any
court or any officer or employee thereof and any case where there is
deemed to be a ``joint employer'' shall not be construed to be a case of
dual or multiple employment.
  (b)  ``Workman'' or ``employee'' or ``worker'' means any person who
has entered into the employment of or works under any contract of serv-
ice or apprenticeship with an employer. Such terms shall include but not
be limited to: Executive officers of corporations; professional athletes;
persons serving on a volunteer basis as duly authorized law enforcement
officers, ambulance attendants, mobile intensive care technicians, fire-
fighters, but only to the extent and during such periods as they are so
serving in such capacities; persons employed by educational, religious and
charitable organizations, but only to the extent and during the periods
that they are paid wages by such organizations; persons in the service of
the state, or any department, agency or authority of the state, any city,
school district, or other political subdivision or municipality or public
corporation and any instrumentality thereof, under any contract of serv-
ice, express or implied, and every official or officer thereof, whether
elected or appointed, while performing official duties; persons in the serv-
ice of the state as volunteer members of the Kansas department of civil
air patrol, but only to the extent and during such periods as they are
officially engaged in the performance of functions specified in K.S.A. 48-
3302 and amendments thereto; volunteers in any employment, if the em-
ployer has filed an election to extend coverage to such volunteers; minors,
whether such minors are legally or illegally employed; and persons per-
forming community service work, but only to the extent and during such
periods as they are performing community service work and if an election
has been filed an election to extend coverage to such persons. Any ref-
erence to an employee who has been injured shall, where the employee
is dead, include a reference to the employee's dependents, to the em-
ployee's legal representatives, or, if the employee is a minor or an inca-
pacitated person, to the employee's guardian or conservator. Unless there
is a valid election in effect which has been filed as provided in K.S.A. 44-
542a and amendments thereto, such terms shall not include individual
employers, limited or general partners or self-employed persons.
  (c) (1)  ``Dependents'' means such members of the employee's family
as were wholly or in part dependent upon the employee at the time of
the accident.
  (2)  ``Members of a family'' means only surviving legal spouse and
children; or if no surviving legal spouse or children, then parents or grand-
parents; or if no parents or grandparents, then grandchildren; or if no
grandchildren, then brothers and sisters. In the meaning of this section,
parents include stepparents, children include stepchildren, grandchildren
include stepgrandchildren, brothers and sisters include stepbrothers and
stepsisters, and children and parents include that relation by legal adop-
tion. In the meaning of this section, a surviving spouse shall not be re-
garded as a dependent of a deceased employee or as a member of the
family, if the surviving spouse shall have for more than six months willfully
or voluntarily deserted or abandoned the employee prior to the date of
the employee's death.
  (3)  ``Wholly dependent child or children'' means:
  (A)  A birth child or adopted child of the employee except such a child
whose relationship to the employee has been severed by adoption;
  (B)  a stepchild of the employee who lives in the employee's house-
hold;
  (C)  any other child who is actually dependent in whole or in part on
the employee and who is related to the employee by marriage or consan-
guinity; or
  (D)  any child as defined in subsections (3)(A), (3)(B) or (3)(C) who
is less than 23 years of age and who is not physically or mentally capable
of earning wages in any type of substantial and gainful employment or
who is a full-time student attending an accredited institution of higher
education or vocational education.
  (d)  ``Accident'' means an undesigned, sudden and unexpected event
or events, usually of an afflictive or unfortunate nature and often, but not
necessarily, accompanied by a manifestation of force. The elements of an
accident, as stated herein, are not to be construed in a strict and literal
sense, but in a manner designed to effectuate the purpose of the workers
compensation act that the employer bear the expense of accidental injury
to a worker caused by the employment.
  (e)  ``Personal injury'' and ``injury'' mean any lesion or change in the
physical structure of the body, causing damage or harm thereto, so that
it gives way under the stress of the worker's usual labor. It is not essential
that such lesion or change be of such character as to present external or
visible signs of its existence.  An injury shall not be deemed to have been
directly caused by the employment where it is shown that the employee
suffers disability as a result of the natural aging process or by the normal
activities of day-to-day living.
  (f)  The words ``arising out of and in the course of employment'' as
used in the workers compensation act shall not be construed to include
injuries to the employee occurring while the employee is on the way to
assume the duties of employment or after leaving such duties, the prox-
imate cause of which injury is not the employer's negligence. An em-
ployee shall not be construed as being on the way to assume the duties
of employment or having left such duties at a time when the worker is
on the premises of the employer or on the only available route to or from
work which is a route involving a special risk or hazard and which is a
route not used by the public except in dealings with the employer. An
employee shall not be construed as being on the way to assume the duties
of employment, if the employee is a provider of emergency services re-
sponding to an emergency.
  The words, ``arising out of and in the course of employment'' as used
in the workers compensation act shall not be construed to include injuries
to employees while engaged in recreational or social events under cir-
cumstances where the employee was under no duty to attend and where
the injury did not result from the performance of tasks related to the
employee's normal job duties or as specifically instructed to be performed
by the employer.
  (g)  ``Burden of proof'' means the burden of a party to persuade the
trier of facts by a preponderance of the credible evidence that such party's
position on an issue is more probably true than not true on the basis of
the whole record.
  (h)  ``Director'' means the director of workers compensation as pro-
vided for in K.S.A. 75-5708 and amendments thereto.
  (i)  ``Health care provider'' means any person licensed, by the proper
licensing authority of this state, another state or the District of Columbia,
to practice medicine and surgery, osteopathy, chiropractic, dentistry, op-
tometry, podiatry or, psychology or social work.
  (j)  ``Secretary'' means the secretary of human resources.
  (k)  ``Construction design professional'' means any person who is an
architect, professional engineer, landscape architect or land surveyor who
has been issued a license by the state board of technical professions to
practice such technical profession in Kansas or any corporation organized
to render professional services through the practice of one or more of
such technical professions in Kansas under the professional corporation
law of Kansas or any corporation issued a certificate of authorization un-
der K.S.A. 74-7036 and amendments thereto to practice one or more of
such technical professions in Kansas.
  (l)  ``Community service work'' means: (1) Public or community serv-
ice performed as a result of a contract of diversion or of assignment to a
community corrections program or conservation camp or suspension of
sentence or as a condition of probation or in lieu of a fine imposed by
court order; or (2) public or community service or other work performed
as a requirement for receipt of any kind of public assistance in accordance
with any program administered by the secretary of social and rehabilita-
tion services.
  (m)  ``Utilization review'' means the initial evaluation of appropriate-
ness in terms of both the level and the quality of health care and health
services provided a patient, based on accepted standards of the health
care profession involved. Such evaluation is accomplished by means of a
system which identifies the utilization of health care services above the
usual range of utilization for such services, which is based on accepted
standards of the health care profession involved, and which refers in-
stances of possible inappropriate utilization to the director for referral to
a peer review committee.
  (n)  ``Peer review'' means an evaluation by a peer review committee
of the appropriateness, quality and cost of health care and health services
provided a patient, which is based on accepted standards of the health
care profession involved and which is conducted in conjunction with util-
ization review.
  (o)  ``Peer review committee'' means a committee composed of health
care providers licensed to practice the same health care profession as the
health care provider who rendered the health care services being re-
viewed.
  (p)  ``Group-funded self-insurance plan'' includes each group-funded
workers compensation pool, which is authorized to operate in this state
under K.S.A. 44-581 through 44-592 and amendments thereto, each mu-
nicipal group-funded pool under the Kansas municipal group-funded pool
act which is covering liabilities under the workers compensation act, and
any other similar group-funded or pooled plan or arrangement that pro-
vides coverage for employer liabilities under the workers compensation
act and is authorized by law.
  (q)  On and after the effective date of this act, ``workers compensation
board'' or ``board'' means the workers compensation board established
under K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 44-555c and amendments thereto.
  Sec. 2.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 44-508 is hereby repealed.
  Sec. 3.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.