By: Cain S.B. No. 1301
2001S0763/1
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the compliance monitoring of physicians by the Texas
1-3 State Board of Medical Examiners.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 160.006, Occupations
1-6 Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) A record, report, or other information received and
1-8 maintained by the board under this subchapter or Subchapter B,
1-9 including any material received or developed by the board during an
1-10 investigation, a [or] hearing, or compliance monitoring, is
1-11 confidential. The board may disclose this information only:
1-12 (1) in a disciplinary hearing before the board or in a
1-13 subsequent trial or appeal of a board action or order;
1-14 (2) to the physician licensing or disciplinary
1-15 authority of another jurisdiction, to a local, state, or national
1-16 professional medical society or association, or to a medical peer
1-17 review committee located inside or outside this state that is
1-18 concerned with granting, limiting, or denying a physician hospital
1-19 privileges;
1-20 (3) under a court order; or
1-21 (4) to qualified personnel for bona fide research or
1-22 educational purposes, if personally identifiable information
1-23 relating to any physician or other individual is first deleted.
1-24 SECTION 2. Subsection (c), Section 164.007, Occupations
1-25 Code, is amended to read as follows:
2-1 (c) Each complaint, adverse report, investigation file,
2-2 other investigation report, compliance file, and other
2-3 investigative information in the possession of or received or
2-4 gathered by the board or its employees or agents relating to a
2-5 license holder, an application for license, or a criminal
2-6 investigation or proceeding is privileged and confidential and is
2-7 not subject to discovery, subpoena, or other means of legal
2-8 compulsion for release to anyone other than the board or its
2-9 employees or agents involved in discipline of a license holder.
2-10 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
2-11 a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
2-12 provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
2-13 Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
2-14 Act takes effect September 1, 2001.