82nd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, House Bill 680, Chapter 1349 Page: 1 of 10
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MESSAGE
I am signing House Bill No. 680 into law because it makes many improvements to the
complaint process at the Texas Medical Board. However, I have serious concerns about
one provision in House Bill 680 regarding the disposition of contested case hearings at
the board, a provision that is also included in Senate Bill 191.
The board is charged with regulating the practice of medicine in Texas by, among other
things, enforcing physicians' standards of conduct and imposing appropriate sanctions
when those standards are violated. When the board is unable to resolve a case, it is
referred to an administrative law judge (AU) at the State Office of Administrative
Hearings. House Bill 680 requires the board to accept an AL's findings of fact on
whether a physician has committed a violation.
This provision weakens the board's authority to oversee physicians and vests that
authority instead in the AL. This bill treats the Texas Medical Board differently from
every other occupational licensing agency by mandating that the board accept the AL's
findings.
The responsibility for deciding whether a physician has violated a standard of conduct
should belong to the multimember board, not to a single ALJ. ALJs serve the important
role of providing an independent forum for conducting adjudicative hearings to determine
the facts, but their role is to assist agencies in reaching a proper decision, not to supplant
them or relieve them of that duty.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I
have signed my name officially
and caused the Seal of the State
to be affixed hereto at Austin,
this 17th day of June, 2011.
RICK PE
Governor of Texas
ATTESTED BY:
S ZA "HOPE" ANDRADESecretary of State FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE
8F.RETARY OF STATE
JUN 17 O'LOC
JUN 17 2011
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Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. 82nd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, House Bill 680, Chapter 1349, legislative document, June 17, 2011; [Austin, Texas]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth311646/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.