Texas Occupations Code 160.006 – Board Confidentiality
(a) A record, report, or other information received and maintained by the board under this subchapter or Subchapter B, including any material received or developed by the board during an investigation or hearing and the identity of, and reports made by, a physician performing or supervising compliance monitoring for the board, is confidential. The board may disclose this information only:
(1) in a disciplinary hearing before the board or State Office of Administrative Hearings or in a subsequent trial or appeal of a board action or order;
(2) to the physician licensing or disciplinary authority of another jurisdiction, to a local, state, or national professional medical society or association, or to a medical peer review committee located inside or outside this state that is concerned with granting, limiting, or denying a physician hospital privileges;
(3) under a court order;
(4) to qualified personnel for bona fide research or educational purposes, if personally identifiable information relating to any physician or other individual is first deleted; or
(5) to the division of workers’ compensation of the Texas Department of Insurance as provided by § 413.0514, Labor Code.
(b) Any known hospital suspension of a physician for a term of 30 days or longer relating to the physician’s competence and a disciplinary order of the board against a physician are not confidential.
Terms Used In Texas Occupations Code 160.006
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Board: means the Texas Medical Board. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Disciplinary order: means an action taken under § 164. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
- Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Health care entity: means :
(A) a hospital licensed under Chapter 241 or Texas Occupations Code 151.002 - Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Medical records: means all records relating to the history, diagnosis, treatment, or prognosis of a patient. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
- Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine in this state. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
- Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
(c) A record or report disclosed by the board under this subchapter, a record or report received, maintained, or developed by the board, a medical peer review committee, a member of the committee, or a health care entity, and a record or report received or maintained by the State Office of Administrative Hearings under this subchapter are not available for discovery or court subpoena and may not be introduced into evidence in any action for damages, including a medical professional liability action that arises out of the provision of or failure to provide a medical or health care service.
(d) Medical peer review documents remain confidential at the board and at the State Office of Administrative Hearings. If medical peer review documents are admitted into evidence for any purpose at a proceeding before the State Office of Administrative Hearings, the documents must be admitted under seal to protect the confidentiality of the records as provided by this section and § 160.007. In the event that a decision of the board or the State Office of Administrative Hearings is appealed to district court or other court, the confidentiality protections relating to the medical peer review committee documents shall continue.
(e) The confidentiality requirements of this section do not apply to records used by a medical peer review committee, including a patient’s medical records or records made or maintained in the regular course of business, if the records are not considered confidential under this chapter or any other law and are otherwise available to the board.