By:  Goolsby                                            H.B. No. 97
       73R963 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the right of a patient or the patient's representative
    1-3  to a copy of the patient's medical records and to the charge for
    1-4  providing the copy.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 5.08(k), Medical Practice Act (Article
    1-7  4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as
    1-8  follows:
    1-9        (k)  A physician shall furnish copies of medical records
   1-10  requested<, or a summary or narrative of the records,> pursuant to
   1-11  a written consent for release of the records <information> as
   1-12  provided by Subsection (j) of this section, except that <if the
   1-13  physician determines that access to the information would be
   1-14  harmful to the physical, mental, or emotional health of the
   1-15  patient, and> the physician may delete confidential information
   1-16  about another person who has not consented to the release.  The
   1-17  records <information> shall be furnished by the physician within a
   1-18  reasonable period of time after receipt of the written consent and
   1-19  after payment of reasonable and customary fees for <furnishing> the
   1-20  records <information shall be paid> by the patient or someone on
   1-21  the patient's <his> behalf.  The reproduction charge for furnishing
   1-22  a copy of a standard or legal size document may not exceed the cost
   1-23  figure published by the General Services Commission under Section
   1-24  9(a) of the Open Records Law for reproduction of a standard or
    2-1  legal size public record.  In this subsection, "medical records"
    2-2  means any records pertaining to the history, diagnosis, treatment,
    2-3  or prognosis of the patient.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.