Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.051 – Notice
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(a) Any person or his authorized agent asserting a health care liability claim shall give written notice of such claim by certified mail, return receipt requested, to each physician or health care provider against whom such claim is being made at least 60 days before the filing of a suit in any court of this state based upon a health care liability claim. The notice must be accompanied by the authorization form for release of protected health information as required under § 74.052.
(b) In such pleadings as are subsequently filed in any court, each party shall state that it has fully complied with the provisions of this section and § 74.052 and shall provide such evidence thereof as the judge of the court may require to determine if the provisions of this chapter have been met.
Terms Used In Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.051
- Claimant: means a person, including a decedent's estate, seeking or who has sought recovery of damages in a health care liability claim. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.001
- Court: means any federal or state court. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.001
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Health care: means any act or treatment performed or furnished, or that should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's medical care, treatment, or confinement. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.001
- Health care liability claim: means a cause of action against a health care provider or physician for treatment, lack of treatment, or other claimed departure from accepted standards of medical care, or health care, or safety or professional or administrative services directly related to health care, which proximately results in injury to or death of a claimant, whether the claimant's claim or cause of action sounds in tort or contract. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.001
- Health care provider: means any person, partnership, professional association, corporation, facility, or institution duly licensed, certified, registered, or chartered by the State of Texas to provide health care, including:
(i) a registered nurse;
(ii) a dentist;
(iii) a podiatrist;
(iv) a pharmacist;
(v) a chiropractor;
(vi) an optometrist;
(vii) a health care institution; or
(viii) a health care collaborative certified under Chapter 848, Insurance Code. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.001 - Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Physician: means :
(A) an individual licensed to practice medicine in this state;
(B) a professional association organized under the Texas Professional Association Act (Article 1528f, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) by an individual physician or group of physicians;
(C) a partnership or limited liability partnership formed by a group of physicians;
(D) a nonprofit health corporation certified under § 162. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.001 - Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
- Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
- Written: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) Notice given as provided in this chapter shall toll the applicable statute of limitations to and including a period of 75 days following the giving of the notice, and this tolling shall apply to all parties and potential parties.
(d) All parties shall be entitled to obtain complete and unaltered copies of the patient’s medical records from any other party within 45 days from the date of receipt of a written request for such records; provided, however, that the receipt of a medical authorization in the form required by § 74.052 executed by the claimant herein shall be considered compliance by the claimant with this subsection.
(e) For the purposes of this section, and notwithstanding Chapter 159, Occupations Code, or any other law, a request for the medical records of a deceased person or a person who is incompetent shall be deemed to be valid if accompanied by an authorization in the form required by § 74.052 signed by a parent, spouse, or adult child of the deceased or incompetent person.