78R8645 T

By:  Farabee                                                      H.B. No. 2197



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to releasing personal information for grave markers at 
TDMHMR cemeteries.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 576.005, Health and Safety Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
	Sec. 576.005.  CONFIDENTIALITY OF RECORDS.  (a) Records of a 
mental health facility that directly or indirectly identify a 
present, former, or proposed patient are confidential unless 
disclosure is permitted by other state law.
	(b)  In the event that a person dies while a patient at a 
mental health facility, the facility may release to an employee or 
agent of a funeral home, cemetery or other appropriate person the 
name, date of birth and date of death of the patient for the purpose 
of including such information on the patient's grave marker, unless 
the patient or patient's guardian, if any, has provided to the 
facility administrator written instructions to the contrary.
	SECTION 2.  Section 595.001, Health and Safety Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
	Sec. 595.001.  CONFIDENTIALITY OF RECORDS.  Records of the 
identity, diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment of a person that are 
maintained in connection with the performance of a program or 
activity relating to mental retardation are confidential and may be 
disclosed only for the purposes and under the circumstances 
authorized under Sections 595.003, [and] 595.004 and 595.005.
	SECTION 3.  Section 595.005, Health and Safety Code, is 
amended by adding subsection (e) to read as follows:
	(e)  In the event that a person dies while a resident of a 
residential care facility, the facility may disclose, without the 
consent required under Section 595.003, the resident's name, date 
of birth and date of death to an employee or agent of a funeral home, 
cemetery or other appropriate person for the purpose of including 
such information on the resident's grave marker, unless the 
resident or resident's guardian, if any, has provided to the 
facility superintendent written instructions to the contrary.
	SECTION 4.  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.