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.