Bill Text: TX HB2962 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Relating to reporting requirements by certain physicians and health care facilities for abortion complications; authorizing a civil penalty.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 70-1)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2017-05-26 - Returned from the House for further action [HB2962 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-HB2962-Comm_Sub.html
| By: Capriglione, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Campbell) | H.B. No. 2962 | |
| (In the Senate - Received from the House May 15, 2017; | ||
| May 16, 2017, read first time and referred to Committee on Health & | ||
| Human Services; May 19, 2017, reported favorably by the following | ||
| vote: Yeas 5, Nays 3; May 19, 2017, sent to printer.) | ||
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| relating to reporting requirements by certain physicians and health | ||
| care facilities for abortion complications; authorizing a civil | ||
| penalty. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 171, Health and Safety | ||
| Code, is amended by adding Section 171.006 to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 171.006. ABORTION COMPLICATION REPORTING | ||
| REQUIREMENTS; CIVIL PENALTY. (a) In this section "abortion | ||
| complication" means any harmful event or adverse outcome with | ||
| respect to a patient related to an abortion that is performed on the | ||
| patient and that is diagnosed or treated by a health care | ||
| practitioner or at a health care facility and includes: | ||
| (1) shock; | ||
| (2) uterine perforation; | ||
| (3) cervical laceration; | ||
| (4) hemorrhage; | ||
| (5) aspiration or allergic response; | ||
| (6) infection; | ||
| (7) sepsis; | ||
| (8) death of the patient; | ||
| (9) incomplete abortion; | ||
| (10) damage to the uterus; or | ||
| (11) an infant born alive after the abortion. | ||
| (b) The reporting requirements of this section apply only | ||
| to: | ||
| (1) a physician who performs an abortion at an | ||
| abortion facility if the abortion results in an abortion | ||
| complication that is diagnosed or treated by that physician or at | ||
| the abortion facility; or | ||
| (2) a health care facility that is a hospital, | ||
| abortion facility, freestanding emergency medical care facility, | ||
| or health care facility that provides emergency medical care, as | ||
| defined by Section 773.003. | ||
| (c) A physician described by Subsection (b)(1) shall submit | ||
| to the department in the form and manner prescribed by department | ||
| rule a report on each abortion complication diagnosed or treated by | ||
| that physician or at the abortion facility not later than 72 hours | ||
| after the complication is diagnosed or treated. Each facility | ||
| described by Subsection (b)(2) shall electronically submit to the | ||
| department in the form and manner prescribed by department rule a | ||
| report on each abortion complication diagnosed or treated at the | ||
| facility not later than the 30th day after the date on which the | ||
| complication is diagnosed or treatment is provided for the | ||
| complication. | ||
| (d) The department shall develop a form for reporting an | ||
| abortion complication under Subsection (c) and publish the form on | ||
| the department's Internet website. The executive commissioner by | ||
| rule may adopt procedures to reduce duplication in reporting under | ||
| this section. | ||
| (e) A report under this section may not identify by any | ||
| means the physician performing an abortion, other than a physician | ||
| described by Subsection (b)(1), or the patient. | ||
| (f) A report under this section must identify the name of | ||
| the physician submitting the report or the name and type of facility | ||
| submitting the report and must include, if known, for each abortion | ||
| complication: | ||
| (1) the date of the abortion that caused or may have | ||
| caused the complication; | ||
| (2) the type of abortion that caused or may have caused | ||
| the complication; | ||
| (3) the gestational age of the fetus when the abortion | ||
| was performed; | ||
| (4) the name and type of the facility in which the | ||
| abortion was performed; | ||
| (5) the date the complication was diagnosed or | ||
| treated; | ||
| (6) the name and type of any facility other than the | ||
| reporting facility in which the complication was diagnosed or | ||
| treated; | ||
| (7) a description of the complication; | ||
| (8) the patient's year of birth, race, marital status, | ||
| and state and county of residence; | ||
| (9) the date of the first day of the patient's last | ||
| menstrual period that occurred before the date of the abortion that | ||
| caused or may have caused the complication; | ||
| (10) the number of previous live births of the | ||
| patient; and | ||
| (11) the number of previous induced abortions of the | ||
| patient. | ||
| (g) Except as provided by Section 245.023, all information | ||
| and records held by the department under this section are | ||
| confidential and are not open records for the purposes of Chapter | ||
| 552, Government Code. That information may not be released or made | ||
| public on subpoena or otherwise, except that release may be made: | ||
| (1) for statistical purposes, but only if a person, | ||
| patient, or facility is not identified; | ||
| (2) with the consent of each person, patient, and | ||
| facility identified in the information released; | ||
| (3) to medical personnel, appropriate state agencies, | ||
| or county and district courts to enforce this chapter; or | ||
| (4) to appropriate state licensing boards to enforce | ||
| state licensing laws. | ||
| (h) A report submitted under this section must meet the | ||
| federal reporting requirements that mandate the most specific, | ||
| accurate, and complete coding and reporting for the highest level | ||
| of specificity. | ||
| (i) The department shall develop and publish on the | ||
| department's Internet website an annual report that aggregates on a | ||
| statewide basis each abortion complication required to be reported | ||
| under Subsection (f) for the previous calendar year. | ||
| (j) A physician described by Subsection (b)(1) or facility | ||
| that violates this section is subject to a civil penalty of $500 for | ||
| each violation. The attorney general, at the request of the | ||
| department or appropriate licensing agency, may file an action to | ||
| recover a civil penalty assessed under this subsection and may | ||
| recover attorney's fees and costs incurred in bringing the action. | ||
| Each day of a continuing violation constitutes a separate ground | ||
| for recovery. | ||
| (k) The third separate violation of this section | ||
| constitutes cause for the revocation or suspension of a physician's | ||
| or facility's license, permit, registration, certificate, or other | ||
| authority or for other disciplinary action against the physician or | ||
| facility by the appropriate licensing agency. | ||
| (l) The department shall notify the Texas Medical Board of | ||
| any violations of this section by a physician. | ||
| SECTION 2. Not later than January 1, 2018: | ||
| (1) the Department of State Health Services shall | ||
| develop the forms required by Section 171.006, Health and Safety | ||
| Code, as added by this Act; and | ||
| (2) the executive commissioner of the Health and Human | ||
| Services Commission shall adopt the rules necessary to implement | ||
| Section 171.006, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act. | ||
| SECTION 3. The Department of State Health Services shall | ||
| establish an electronic reporting system for purposes of Section | ||
| 171.006, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act, as soon as | ||
| practicable after the effective date of this Act. | ||
| SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017. | ||
| * * * * * | ||
