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House Bill 2845 |
House Author: Riddle et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Nichols |
House Bill 2845 removes an applicant for certification as emergency medical services personnel from Occupations Code provisions relating to the consequences of criminal conviction on licensing and adds provisions to the Health and Safety Code relating to the certification of and disciplinary actions against emergency medical services personnel. The bill requires the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to consider criminal background information in adopting the minimum standards for emergency medical services personnel certification and authorizes the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to provide a prescreening criminal history record check for an emergency medical services personnel applicant to determine the applicant's eligibility to receive certification before enrollment in the educational and training requirements mandated by the executive commissioner. The bill authorizes DSHS to charge each applicant who requests prescreening a reasonable fee for costs associated with prescreening. It authorizes the commissioner of health to suspend or revoke an emergency medical services certificate, disqualify a person from receiving a certificate, or deny a person the opportunity to take a certification examination on the grounds that the person has been convicted of, or placed on deferred adjudication community supervision or deferred disposition for, an offense that directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of emergency medical services personnel, other than certain traffic offenses. The bill requires that a certificate holder's certificate be revoked if the certificate holder is convicted of, or placed on deferred adjudication community supervision or deferred disposition for, an offense for which a judge may not suspend the sentence and place the defendant on community supervision or an offense committed on or after September 1, 2009, for which the person is subject to registration as a sex offender. The bill requires the commissioner of health, in determining whether an offense directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of emergency medical services personnel, to consider certain factors. It requires the commissioner of health, in determining the fitness to perform the duties and discharge the responsibilities of emergency medical services personnel for a person who has been convicted of, or placed on deferred adjudication community supervision or deferred disposition for, a crime, to consider additional factors. The bill establishes that the applicant or certificate holder has the responsibility to obtain and provide to the commissioner of health specified information required to make such a determination. The bill also establishes provisions regarding proceedings relating to revoking, suspending, or denying a certificate, notification requirements, and a review procedure.