AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

Current law requires a person whose duty it is to file a death certificate or fetal death certificate to fill out a standard Vital Statistics Form 112 in the Texas Electronic Register (TER-D).  On this electronic form, however, the months and dates are not spelled out, but are in numerical form only.

 

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO),  to avoid confusion for numeric dates,  recommends the following order for date numbers: YYYY-MM-DD.  Some European countries and Mexico use the reverse of this standard: DD-MM-YYYY.  Texas is using the following order: MM-DD-YYYY.  The months should be spelled out in printed documents so there is no confusion regardless of what order is used.

 

H.B. 2940 would require the Department of State Health Services to improve its database by allowing the user to enter dates in a way which improves the readability of the certified death certificate.

 

H.B. 2940 amends current law relating to the form of death certificates and fetal death certificates.

 

[Note: While the statutory reference in this bill is to the Texas Department of Health (TDH), the following amendments affect the Department of State Health Services, as the successor agency to TDH.]

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

 

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 193.001, Health and Safety Code, by adding Subsection (a-1), to require the Texas Department of Health, in prescribing each form under Subsection (a), to ensure that the form instructs the person required to file the death certificate or fetal death certificate to enter the date in the standard order of "month, day, year", and spell out the name of the month when entering the date.

 

SECTION 2.  (a)  Requires DSHS to revise and make available the forms required by Section 193.001, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act, not later than January 1, 2012.

 

(b)  Provides that a person required to file a death certificate or a fetal death certificate is not required to use the revised form required by Section 193.001, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act, before February 1, 2012.

 

SECTION 3.  Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2011.