Texas Sen. Jane Nelson filed legislation Monday that would empower state health regulators to conduct more frequent hospital inspections and even take control of a troubled facility that poses “an immediate threat” to patients.
Those were among several measures that Nelson, Senate health committee chairwoman, proposed to bolster the state’s ability to crack down on problem hospitals and their owners.
The bill was filed just hours before the Legislature adjourned unexpectedly Monday night.
Nelson’s office earlier had said she would refile the measure in the next legislative session if necessary.
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“This legislation will help our agencies respond more swiftly and more forcefully when patients are in danger,” Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said in a statement. “I am deeply troubled by the recent reports of fraud and lapses in patient safety. We must ensure that Texans are receiving safe, quality care in our hospitals.”
Nelson’s bill followed an investigative report last month in The Dallas Morning News. The paper detailed how multiple government agencies failed to take serious action or share information about patient dangers and potential fraud in a rural hospital chain owned by Dr. Tariq Mahmood. Gov. Rick Perry responded by ordering investigations into Mahmood’s chain and the regulatory breakdowns.
Officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services said they would study Nelson’s proposal to see how it might affect staffing and resources.
“We’re supportive of measures that protect patients in hospitals,” said spokeswoman Carrie Williams. “At the end of the day we regulate the hospitals and want the patients safe.”
Many of the measures in Nelson’s bill took aim at the kind of regulatory gaps that allowed Mahmood to operate a six-hospital chain for years, despite hundreds of safety violations and questionable financial practices.
Top health regulators, for example, didn’t know Mahmood owned multiple hospitals until The News asked about them earlier this year. The health department isn’t set up to track problem hospital owners or to hold them accountable for care failures.
Other measures in the bill would have boosted fines for health violations from $1,000 to $25,000 a day; required those with at least a 5 percent ownership stake in a hospital to disclose their identities; and allowed state health officials to share information with the health department’s inspector general to improve vetting of applicants for hospital licenses.
Nelson’s proposal also would have tightened the timeline for hospital inspections, requiring them every three years instead of every five to six years. And it would have greatly enhanced regulators’ ability to remedy dangers at a hospital.
Currently, the state health department cannot force a facility’s closure without a hearing — a process that can drag on for weeks or months. Under Nelson’s proposal, the department’s commissioner could order “an emergency suspension of a hospital license without holding a hearing first.”
If a hospital’s license were suspended, the department could then “request an appointment of a trustee to operate a hospital.” But no timetables were specified. That would apply only to hospitals operating without a license or under suspension or revocation, according to the bill.
Date: August 6, 2013