1-1  By:  Sadler (Senate Sponsor - Nixon)                  H.B. No. 1491
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 18, 1995;
    1-3  April 19, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
    1-4  and Human Services; May 17, 1995, reported favorably by the
    1-5  following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 17, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to partner notification programs for persons with human
    1-9  immunodeficiency virus infection.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 81.051, Health and Safety Code, is
   1-12  amended by adding new Subsections (g) and (h) and relettering
   1-13  current Subsections (g)-(i) to read as follows:
   1-14        (g)  A partner notification program shall be carried out as
   1-15  follows:
   1-16              (1)  a partner notification program shall make the
   1-17  notification of a partner of a person with HIV infection in the
   1-18  manner authorized by this section regardless of whether the person
   1-19  with HIV infection who gave the partner's name consents to the
   1-20  notification; and
   1-21              (2)  a health care professional shall notify the
   1-22  partner notification program when the health care professional
   1-23  knows the HIV+ status of a patient and the health care professional
   1-24  has actual knowledge of possible transmission of HIV to a third
   1-25  party.  Such notification shall be carried out in the manner
   1-26  authorized in this section and Section 81.103.
   1-27        (h)  A health care professional who fails to make the
   1-28  notification required by Subsection (g) is immune from civil or
   1-29  criminal liability for failure to make that notification.
   1-30        (i) <(g)>  A partner notification program shall provide
   1-31  counseling, testing, or referral services to a person with HIV
   1-32  infection regardless of whether the person discloses the names of
   1-33  any partners.
   1-34        (j) <(h)>  A partner notification program shall routinely
   1-35  evaluate the performance of counselors and other program personnel
   1-36  to ensure that high quality services are being delivered.  A
   1-37  program shall adopt quality assurance and training guidelines
   1-38  according to recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control of
   1-39  the United States Public Health Service for professionals
   1-40  participating in the program.
   1-41        (k) <(i)>  In this section, "HIV" has the meaning assigned by
   1-42  Section 81.101.
   1-43        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-44  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-45  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-46  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-47  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-48  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-49  passage, and it is so enacted.
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