BILL ANALYSIS C.S.S.B. 760 By: Madla Health and Human Services 4-20-95 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Rural hospital district members often reside long distances from one another and the medical facilities under their purview. This distance can provide a hardship to the members, a barrier to expeditious actions, and additional cost to the district when overnight accommodations must be made to facilitate attendance. Due to technological advances, it is possible to teleconference fully interactive meetings which fulfill the intent and purposes of the Open Meetings Act. PURPOSE As proposed, C.S.S.B. 760 authorizes the governing board of a hospital in a rural county to conduct meetings by telephone conference call. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 311, Health and Safety Code, by adding Subchapter E, as follows: SUBCHAPTER E. MEETING BY TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL Sec. 311.061. DEFINITIONS. Defines "hospital" and "rural county." Sec. 311.062. MEETING BY TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL. (a) Authorizes the governing board of a hospital in a rural county to conduct an open or closed meeting by telephone conference call. (b) Requires the notice of the telephone meeting to specify, as the location of the meeting, the location where meetings of the governing board are usually held. Requires the location designated in the notice to provide two-way communication during each part of the telephone conference meeting that is required to be open to the public under Chapter 551, Government Code, and the identification of each party to such a meeting to be clearly stated prior to speaking. (c) Requires each part of the telephone meeting that is required to be open to the public to be audible to the public at the location specified as the location of the meeting. Requires a member of the public meeting to be able to participate in the meeting to the same extent the public is allowed to participate in a meeting held at a single location. (d) Requires the part of the telephone meeting that is open to the public to be tape-recorded and to be made available to the public. SECTION 2. Amends Chapter 551F, Government Code, by adding Section 551.125, as follows: Sec. 551.125. BOARD MEETINGS FOR CERTAIN HOSPITALS. (a) Authorizes the governing board of a hospital in a rural county, except as provided by Subsection (b), to conduct an open or closed meeting by telephone conference call as provided by Chapter 311E, Health and Safety Code. (b) Requires the governing board of a hospital in a rural county to conduct a minimum of two regularly scheduled meetings of that board per year without benefit of the telephone conference call under Chapter 311E, Health and Safety Code. (c) Defines "hospital" and "rural county." SECTION 3. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.