Amend SB 17 (senate committee report) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTION to the bill and renumbering accordingly the SECTIONS of the bill:
SECTION ____. Subchapter D, Chapter 1001, Health and Safety Code, is amended by adding Section 1001.0712 to read as follows:
Sec. 1001.0712. CAUSE OF DEATH DATA IMPROVEMENT. (a) Not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year, the department shall submit to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and appropriate standing committees of the legislature a report on the processes and procedures for collecting cause of death information, including any challenges to collecting accurate information relating to maternal mortality.
(b) In preparing the report, the department may examine:
(1) issues relating to the quality of the death information being collected, including the accuracy and completeness of the information;
(2) the role of medical certifiers in death information collection;
(3) the perceptions of the individuals collecting the death information regarding the information's integrity;
(4) the training required for the individuals collecting death information; and
(5) the structural, procedural, and technological issues of collecting the information.
(c) The department, in consultation with the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force, shall examine national standards regarding the collection of death information and may convene a panel of experts to advise the department and the task force in developing recommendations for improving the collection of accurate information related to cause of death.
(d) The report may be included as part of another report the department is required to submit to the legislature.
(e) This section expires September 1, 2021.