The council met to consider the following agenda items.
 
Commissioner’s report regarding Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Family and Community Health Services, Disease Control and Prevention Services, Regulatory Services, Regional and Local Health Services, Chief Operating, Office, Chief Financial Office, legislative session update, Blue Bell recall, Ebola, Anthrax, hurricane preparedness, response to recent storms, Arbovirus update, secondary newborn screening, tobacco initiative, substance abuse request for proposals, Terrell State Hospital audit report, State Hospital System Plan, recent litigation regarding abortion and marriage (Kirk Cole, Interim Commissioner, DSHS)

  • DSHS has received additional funding for a number of exceptional items 
  • Northstar Program
    • Has been transitioned into a new model; local plans including Collin County, and surrounding counties, are currently being formed
  • Terrell State Hospital Procurement – an audit revealed a number of contract planning deficiencies
    • The Executive Commissioner has decided to cancel procurement due to said deficiencies
    • As a result, rules have been passed requiring LBB to review and approve procurements of private hospitals
  • Ten Year Plan for State Hospitals –
    • Mental health facilities are in need of repair, renovation, and replacement
    • University affiliations are being studied in order to aid in improving state mental health facility conditions; this will be done in the interim in hopes of having plans in place to present for the 85th legislative session
  • Substance Abuse RFP
    • 440 applications have been scored and preliminary recommendation have been made, but are not yet available to the public
  • Infectious Disease Response
    • Monitoring individuals from Guinea and Liberia for Ebola
    • Federal funds have been received for hospital readiness
  • Mosquito Transmission of Disease
    • There have been three reported West Nile infection cases so far this year
  • Blue Bell
    • An agreement has been made requiring Blue Bell to notify DSHS before re-initiating production, and to undergo facility testing; no production timeline has been released yet
  • Newborn Screening Program
    • Has been expanded to screen for additional health conditions
  • Tobacco Initiative
    • The staff has been asked to re-evaluate resource management for the program in order to more efficiently use funds for tobacco use prevention and formulate new strategies
  • Lawsuits
    • Supreme Court ruling temporarily preventing enforcement of requirements from HB 2 of the 83rd session in regards to abortion clinic licensing and standards
    • Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage and its impact on DSHS; DSHS creates the application form for marriage licenses which has been adjusted to the recent Supreme Court ruling
      • The council has requested that more information on same sex marriage application numbers be produced
  • Sunset Transition
    • SB 200 abolishes individual agency councils in September of 2016, and requires a transition plan by March 1, 2016
    • SB 200 requires an executive council which can appoint stakeholders

 
Review of 84th Legislative Session (Bill Wheeler/Ricky Garcia, DSHS)

  • SB 202 – streamlined occupational regulatory function; transfers four programs to the Texas Medical Board; transfers 13 regulatory programs to TDLR
  • SB 1507 – training curriculum for judges and attorneys on treatment alternatives; regional allocation for mental health beds; substance abuse and mental health hotlines
  • SB 1899 – requirements for EMS providers to combat fraud
  • SB 200 – includes vital statistics Sunset recommendations; local registrars submit self assessment reports to DSHS annually; fingerprint-based criminal background checks for access to vital records system
  • SB 277 – Removes 9 DSHS advisory committees; requires HHSC EC to re-establish needed advisory committees that cover major areas of HHSC
  • HB 1 Riders – review standards for service delivery for community crisis and treatment facilities and submit report to legislature by 12/01/16; identify opportunities to improve contract processing and payment mechanisms for behavioral health services contracts; develop inventory roles

 
Recommend to the HHSC the proposal of the following rule actions for public comment. Amendments to rules concerning the control of communicable diseases (Rachel Wiseman, Epidemiologist, DSHS)

  • The emerging and acute infectious disease branch has proposed rule changes to eliminate redundancy and provide rule clarity
  • SARS has been reframed as Novel Coronavirus
  • Haemophilus influenza reporting has been expanded
  • Relapsing fever in humans has been removed
  • School exclusion criteria have changed – tuberculosis/measles have been modified and typhoid fever has been added
  • Amendments have been requiring certain isolates of bacteria to be submitted to the state laboratories
  • Haemophilus influenza isolates for children under the age of five must be submitted to state laboratories
  • Rule changes allow for earlier detection and prevention
  • The amendments were adopted by the council

 
Rules Planned for Action at a Future Council Meeting. New rules concerning the neonatal level of care designation for hospitals (Jane Guerrero, EMS Trauma, DSHS)

  • HB 3433 made changes to the timelines established by HB 15 in the 83rd legislature; the timeline gives an additional year to complete the designation process
  • HB 3433 added two additional rural members to the perinatal advisory council
  • There are four levels of neonatal care with the lowest level being level 1 and the highest level being level 4
  • Under level 2 there is a section classified as 2RE – if a facility keeps a low birth weight infant they must provide a level of care comparable to the same care provided a the higher level neonatal care facility
  • Allow home transfers when an infant is at a higher level of care and has stabilized to the point where they can go to a lower level of care; the new rules address funding in such situations
  • A fee has been developed for the designation process to cover administrative costs of designation application
  • Perinatal care regions were required in HB 15; trauma regions will be working with the perinatal care regions in developing said regions
  • The perinatal regions must be in place prior to designations
  • Two separate organizations (AAP) wish to provide onsite designation surveys in a peer review fashion for compliance with rules; the cost of surveys is bore by the facility in question

 
Eugene Toy, OBGYN, Chair of Perinatal Council

  • Developing these rules is crucial because our maternal mortality rate has tripled in the last 10 years

 
Consolidation and repeal of certain DSHS procurement and contracting rules (Lisa Hernandez, General Counsel, DSHS)

  • The expedited review has been performed and the new rules have been adopted and open for public comment, which resulted in no comments
  • A number of rules have been repealed or consolidated in order to streamline the contracting procurement process
  • Link to newly adopted rules
  • The new rules went into effect June 21, 2015