89R1698 SRA-D
By: Hughes S.B. No. 672
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a requirement that certain hospitals submit a summary
of parts of their emergency department diversion plans to the
Health and Human Services Commission.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 311, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 311.025 to read as follows:
Sec. 311.025. SUMMARY OF CERTAIN PARTS OF EMERGENCY
DEPARTMENT DIVERSION PLAN. (a) In this section:
(1) "Commission" means the Health and Human Services
Commission.
(2) "Diversion plan" means a hospital's process for
temporarily routing patients in need of emergency services to other
hospitals or health facilities during a period when:
(A) the hospital's capacity to provide emergency
services to those patients is significantly diminished; and
(B) the patients, if routed to the hospital,
would likely receive substantially delayed care resulting in worse
health outcomes than would otherwise occur were the patient routed
to another hospital or health facility.
(3) "Hospital" means a hospital licensed under Chapter
241.
(b) This section applies only to a hospital that has an
emergency department or otherwise regularly provides emergency
services.
(c) A hospital to which this section applies shall submit to
the commission a written summary of the part of the hospital's
diversion plan that addresses diversions from the hospital's
emergency department in the event that the hospital experiences a
cyber attack or an electrical power outage.
(d) If a hospital to which this section applies makes
changes to the part of the plan described by Subsection (c), the
hospital shall update the previously submitted summary and submit
the updated summary to the commission not later than the 30th day
after the date the changes to the plan are adopted by the hospital's
governing body or otherwise approved by the appropriate hospital
administrator.
(e) A summary submitted to the commission under this section
is confidential and excepted from public disclosure under Chapter
552, Government Code.
SECTION 2. A hospital to which Section 311.025, Health and
Safety Code, as added by this Act, applies shall comply with the
requirements of that section not later than December 1, 2025.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.