2017S0420-1 03/08/17
By: Campbell, Perry S.B. No. 1602
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to reporting requirements by health care practitioners and
certain health care facilities for abortion complications and to an
annual report by the Department of State Health Services; providing
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:
(1) "Abortion complication" means a harmful event or
negative 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 facility and includes:
(A) shock;
(B) uterine perforation;
(C) cervical laceration;
(D) hemorrhage;
(E) aspiration or allergic response;
(F) infection;
(G) sepsis;
(H) death of the patient;
(I) incomplete abortion;
(J) damage to the uterus; or
(K) an infant born alive after the abortion.
(2) "Facility" means a hospital, public health clinic,
birthing center, outpatient clinic, community health center,
abortion facility, freestanding emergency medical care facility,
or health care facility that provides emergency medical care, as
defined by Section 773.003.
(b) Each facility shall submit to the department in the form
and manner prescribed by department rule a quarterly report on each
abortion complication diagnosed or treated at the facility.
(c) Each health care practitioner providing diagnosis of or
treatment for an abortion complication shall submit to the
department in the form and manner prescribed by department rule an
abortion complication report not later than the 30th day after the
date the complication is diagnosed or treatment is provided for the
abortion complication.
(d) The department shall develop a form for reporting an
abortion complication under Subsection (b) or (c) and publish the
form on the department's Internet website.
(e) A report submitted under this section may not identify
by any means the physician performing an abortion or the patient.
(f) A report submitted under Subsection (c) 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 facility in which the abortion
was performed;
(5) the date the complication was diagnosed or
treated;
(6) the name and type of facility in which the
complication was diagnosed or treated;
(7) a description of the complication;
(8) the number of previous live births of the patient;
and
(9) 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 Subsection (c) 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 publish annually on its Internet
website a report indicating on a statewide basis the occurrence of
each item of information in the preceding calendar year required to
be reported under Subsection (f).
(j) A health care practitioner who violates this section is
subject to a civil penalty of $500 for each violation. If the
health care practitioner commits a third violation of this section,
the appropriate state regulatory board shall consider additional
disciplinary action against the health care practitioner,
including actions described by Subsection (k).
(k) A third violation of this section by a facility or a
health care practitioner constitutes cause for the revocation or
suspension of the facility's or health care practitioner's license,
permit, registration, certificate, or other authority or for other
disciplinary action against the facility or health care
practitioner by the appropriate state regulatory board.
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. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.