The bill would amend the Penal Code by adding health care service providers to the list of persons for which assault against is punishable as a third degree felony.  The provisions of the bill that create new punishment or enhance existing punishment for criminal offenses are the subject of this analysis. The bill would make intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to a health care services provider while the person is providing health care services punishable as a felony of the third degree.  Under current statute, intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury is a Class A Misdemeanor and does not have specific provisions related to health care service providers.

A Class A Misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in a county jail for any term of not more than one year, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $4,000. A felony of the third degree is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.
 
Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of probation, or, longer terms of confinement in county jails or prison.  When an offense is changed from a misdemeanor to a felony, there is a transfer of the burden of confinement and/or supervision of convicted offenders from the counties to the State.  For this analysis, it is assumed the number of persons convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.