H.B. No. 13
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:
(A) performs at an abortion facility an abortion
that results in an abortion complication diagnosed or treated by
that physician; or
(B) diagnoses or treats at an abortion facility
an abortion complication that is the result of an abortion
performed by another physician at the 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
electronically submit to the commission in the form and manner
prescribed by commission rule a report on each abortion
complication diagnosed or treated by that physician not later than
the end of the third business day after the date on which the
complication is diagnosed or treated. Each health care facility
described by Subsection (b)(2) shall electronically submit to the
commission in the form and manner prescribed by commission 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 commission shall develop a form for reporting an
abortion complication under Subsection (c) and publish the form on
the commission'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 on whom the abortion
was performed.
(f) A report under this section must identify the name of
the physician submitting the report or the name and type of health
care 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 at the time 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 commission 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 release may be made:
(1) for statistical purposes, but only if a person,
patient, or health care 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 include the
most specific, accurate, and complete reporting for the highest
level of specificity.
(i) The commission shall develop and publish on the
commission'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. The annual
report may not include any duplicative data.
(j) A physician described by Subsection (b)(1) or health
care facility that violates this section is subject to a civil
penalty of $500 for each violation. The attorney general, at the
request of the commission 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 health care 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 commission 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 Health and Human Services Commission 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 Health and Human Services Commission 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 immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day of the
legislative session.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 13 was passed by the House on July 28,
2017, by the following vote: Yeas 94, Nays 45, 1 present, not
voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 13 was passed by the Senate on August
11, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 22, Nays 9.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor