By: Capriglione, Sheffield, Springer, H.B. No. 2962
Laubenberg, Burkett, et al.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
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.