By Shields                                             H.B. No. 146
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the confidentiality of the records and proceedings of a
    1-3  medical committee.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 161.032, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsections (d), (e), (f) to read as follows:
    1-7        (d)  A medical committee may disclose information that is
    1-8  confidential under this section to another medical committee, a law
    1-9  enforcement agency or other agency of this state or the federal
   1-10  government, a national accreditation organization, or a regulatory
   1-11  or licensing agency of another state.
   1-12        (e)  Disclosure of information under Subsection (d), whether
   1-13  made by a member, employee, or agent of the medical committee and
   1-14  whether authorized by the committee or not, does not waive the
   1-15  privilege of confidentiality under this section.
   1-16        (f)  Information that is confidential under this section is
   1-17  not admissible for any purpose in a judicial proceeding unless the
   1-18  privilege of confidentiality is waived in writing executed on
   1-19  behalf of the committee and filed with the court.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to records made and maintained
   1-21  and to proceedings occurring before, on, or after the effective
   1-22  date of this Act, except that this Act does not apply to records
   1-23  and proceedings that were disclosed before the effective date of
    2-1  this Act under a valid subpoena issued by a court of competent
    2-2  jurisdiction.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.