Sec. 160.004.  REPORT REGARDING CERTAIN IMPAIRED PHYSICIANS.  (a)  This section applies to:
(1)  a committee of a professional medical society or association operating under written bylaws approved by the policymaking body or governing board of the society or association and composed primarily of physicians;
(2)  the staff of that committee;  or
(3)  a district or local intervenor participating in a program established to aid physicians whose ability to practice medicine is impaired, or reasonably believed to be impaired, by drug or alcohol abuse or mental or physical illness.
(b)  A person or committee subject to this section:
(1)  may report to the board or to a health care entity in which an affected physician has clinical privileges the name of the impaired physician together with pertinent information relating to that impairment;  and
(2)  shall report to the board and any known health care entity in which the physician has clinical privileges if the person or committee determines that, through the practice of medicine, the physician poses a continuing threat to the public welfare.
(c)  Except as otherwise provided by this subtitle, each proceeding and record of a person described by Subsection (a) is confidential, and any communication made to the person or committee is privileged from disclosure in the manner provided under this subchapter for information submitted by a medical peer review committee.  This confidentiality and privilege from disclosure applies to all information developed under this section, including information developed before September 1, 1991.
Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.