Amend HB 1491 by striking all below the enacting clause and
substituting the following:
      SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Medical Practice Act (Article
4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by adding Section
5.12 to read as follows:
      Sec. 5.12.  EMPLOYMENT OF PHYSICIANS BY PRIVATE MEDICAL
SCHOOL. (a)  A private nonprofit medical school that is certified
under Subsection (d) of this section, accredited by the Liaison
Committee on Medical Education, and that was appropriated funds by
the legislature in the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, may
retain, in fulfilling its educational mission, all or part of the
professional income generated by a physician for medical services
if the physician is employed as a faculty member of the school and
provides medical services as part of the physician's
responsibilities.
      (b)  A private medical school subject to this section shall
establish a committee consisting of at least five actively
practicing physicians who provide care in the clinical program of
the private medical school.  The committee shall approve existing
policies, or adopt new policies if none exist, to ensure that a
physician whose professional income is retained under Subsection
(a) of this section is exercising the physician's independent
medical judgment in providing care to patients in the school's
clinical programs.  The policies adopted under this subsection must
include policies relating to credentialing, quality assurance,
utilization review, peer review, medical decision-making,
governance of the committee, and due process.
      (c)  Each member of a committee under Subsection (b) of this
section shall provide to the board biennially a signed and verified
statement indicating that the member:
            (1)  is licensed by the board;
            (2)  will exercise independent medical judgment in all
committee matters, specifically in matters relating to
credentialing, quality assurance, utilization review, peer review,
medical decision-making, and due process;
            (3)  will exercise the member's best efforts to ensure
compliance with the private medical school's policies that are
adopted or established by the committee; and
            (4)  shall report immediately to the board any action
or event that the member reasonably and in good faith believes
constitutes a compromise of the independent judgment of a physician
in caring for a patient in the private medical school's clinical
program or in carrying out the member's duties as a committee
member.
      (d)  A private school that retains a physician's professional
income under Subsection (a) of this section must be certified by
the board as being in compliance with this section.  The board
shall prescribe an application form to be provided to the school
and may adopt rules as necessary to administer this section.  The
board may prescribe and assess a fee for the certification of a
school and for investigation and review of the school in an amount
not to exceed the fee assessed on an organization described by
Section 5.01(a) of this Act.
      (e)  A private medical school certified under Subsection (d)
of this section must provide to the board a biennial report
certifying that the board is in compliance with this section.  If
the board determines at any time that the private medical school
has failed to comply with this section, the board may suspend or
revoke the school's certification.
      (f)  A private medical school's authority to retain a
physician's professional income does not apply to a physician
providing care in a facility owned or operated by the school that
is established outside the school's historical geographical service
area as it existed on the effective date of this section.
      (g)  The board shall adopt rules requiring the disclosure of
financial conflicts of interest by a committee member.
      (h)  This section does not affect the reporting requirements
under Section 5.06(d) of this Act.
      (i)  This section does not apply to a private medical school
certified under this section if all or substantially all of the
school's assets are sold.
      SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
passage, and it is so enacted.