1-1 By: Moncrief S.B. No. 570 1-2 (In the Senate - Filed February 15, 1995; February 16, 1995, 1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on Health and Human 1-4 Services; April 5, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote: 1-5 Yeas 6, Nays 0; April 5, 1995, sent to printer.) 1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-7 AN ACT 1-8 relating to the confidentiality of complaint information in the 1-9 possession of the Health Professions Council. 1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-11 SECTION 1. Section 2, Article 4512p, Revised Statutes, is 1-12 amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows: 1-13 (c) All complaints, adverse reports, and other complaint 1-14 information regarding the content of a complaint in the possession 1-15 of or received or gathered by the council or its employees or 1-16 agents relating to a person, including a partnership, association, 1-17 corporation, or other entity, initiating a complaint or the 1-18 licensed professional, including a partnership, association, 1-19 corporation, or other entity, being complained against are 1-20 privileged and confidential and are not subject to discovery, 1-21 subpoena, or other means of legal compulsion for their release to 1-22 anyone other than council employees or agents involved in 1-23 collecting complaint information or the specific council member 1-24 agency or board responsible for the regulation of the health 1-25 profession under which the individual or institution being 1-26 complained against is licensed or its employees or agents involved 1-27 in licensee discipline. 1-28 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995. 1-29 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the 1-30 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-31 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-32 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-33 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended. 1-34 * * * * *