The Texas Legislature enacted SB 11 in 2001, which would have imported HIPAA provisions into state law and expanded their application to anyone who comes into possession of protected health information ("PHI"). SB 11 also added research standards that conflicted with the HIPAA research standards. This session, Vinson & Elkins has continued to work with a group of hospitals, academic medical centers, and employers to make improvements that reconcile state and federal privacy laws. SB 330, which has already been signed by the Governor, repeals Sections 181.101 and 181.103 of the Texas Health & Safety Code that import the HIPAA provisions and the research provisions that differ from HIPAA. We have also been working on SB 1136, which was passed unanimously by the Senate and has been assigned to the House Committee on Public Health for hearing on May 7, 2003. Specifically, SB 1136 significantly improves the marketing provisions; provides for a statewide preemption analysis; adds certain protections for good faith efforts to comply with state law or HIPAA; centralizes rulemaking through the Texas Commissioner of Health and Human Services; removes provisions allowing a cause of action under another state for violations of Chapter 181; and includes additional clean-up to reconcile state law with HIPAA.
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