By:  Harris, Jack                                      H.B. No. 597
       73R1533 MLR-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to hospital staff privileges for doctors of medicine and
    1-3  doctors of osteopathy.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 241, Health and Safety
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 241.105 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 241.105.  MEDICAL STAFF PRIVILEGES FOR DOCTORS OF
    1-8  MEDICINE AND DOCTORS OF OSTEOPATHY.  (a)  A hospital may not
    1-9  discriminate with respect to staff privileges against a physician
   1-10  who is licensed on the basis of holding a degree of doctor of
   1-11  osteopathy rather than the degree of doctor of medicine.
   1-12        (b)  If a hospital's staffing requirements for staff
   1-13  privileges require a physician to be residency trained, certified
   1-14  or eligible for certification by an appropriate American Medical
   1-15  Association specialty certification board, or accredited by the
   1-16  Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, that position
   1-17  must be made available on an equal basis to an osteopathic
   1-18  physician who is residency trained or certified or eligible for
   1-19  certification by an appropriate osteopathic specialty board
   1-20  accredited by the American Osteopathic Association.
   1-21        (c)  A hospital may not adopt written bylaws that circumvent
   1-22  the legislative intent to give equal professional status and
   1-23  privileges to doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy or to
   1-24  circumvent any other nondiscriminatory provisions in the Medical
    2-1  Practice Act (Article 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), or any
    2-2  other law applicable to osteopathic physicians.
    2-3        (d)  A hospital shall act expeditiously and without
    2-4  unnecessary delay when a licensed doctor of medicine or doctor of
    2-5  osteopathy submits an application for permission to treat patients
    2-6  in the hospital.  The hospital shall take final action on the
    2-7  application not later than the 90th day after the date the
    2-8  application is received.  The hospital must notify the applicant in
    2-9  writing of the hospital's final action, including a reason for the
   2-10  denial of or restriction on the application, not later than the
   2-11  20th day after the date of the final action.
   2-12        (e)  On receipt of a complaint by an aggrieved physician, the
   2-13  district attorney of the county in which a violation under this
   2-14  section occurs or the district attorney of Travis County may bring
   2-15  an action to enjoin the violation.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.