consolidate those three programs into two at the recommendation of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. Dr. Realini says while it’s unclear
exactly how HHSC will handle the consolidation, she expects that the Family Planning Program will remain as is and that HHSC will consolidate the Expanded Primary Care Program and the Women’s Health Program. “We need to make sure that process
and that product are things that will enhance access and enhance quality and not hurt any of the providers,” Dr. Realini said.
A LONGER “TRAC” RECORD After a similar measure failed two years earlier, Rep. J.D. Sheffield, DO (R-Gainesville), and TMA backed a bill to promote longer-lasting data in the state’s ImmTrac immunization registry, with better results this time. Governor Abbott signed House Bill
“That’s a medical decision, not a legal decision, that somebody’s a danger to self or others due to mental illness.”
2171, which allows a person’s child- hood immunization records to stay in the ImmTrac database until he or she reaches age 26 if the person’s parents consented before the child turned 18. ImmTrac currently keeps childhood immunization records only until a person turns 18. The intent of HB 2171 put the bill
in line with TPHC’s priorities. (See “Public Health in Action,” page 47.) In May, San Antonio pediatrician James Lukefahr, MD, testified in favor of the bill on behalf of TMA, telling the Senate Health and Human Services Committee that more than 90 percent of Texas parents choose to keep their children’s immunization records in ImmTrac. “However, all of these important re-
cords are deleted before our patients have a chance to use them as they ap- proach adulthood,” Dr. Lukefahr said. “Their immunization histories, typi- cally established with their parents’ consent when they were born, are simply deleted, unless our 18-year-old teen patients submit a consent form to the state. The reality is, despite our efforts to remind our teen patients,
48 TEXAS MEDICINE August 2015
they don’t make the effort to take care of their health records the way their parents did when they established the immunization record.” Dr. Van Ramshorst, who also tes-
tified in favor of HB 2171, says he thought of his younger patients when he spoke on behalf of the bill. “I have a lot of teenagers who want
to go serve their country in uniform, and I thought of those kids when I was testifying on that bill,” he said.
“It’s going to make it easier for them to send their vaccine records on to the Army or the Marine Corps or the Air Force. So I made that argument, and the members of the committee seemed to get that.” Representative Sheffield didn’t
have the same success on the immuni- zation front with another bill he spon- sored, House Bill 2474. That measure would have required school districts and campuses to provide de-identi- fied information to requesting parents about immunization exemptions in the school or district. Parents would have been able to obtain such informa- tion as the number of students in their child’s school whose vaccinations aren’t current, the number claiming vaccination exemptions for religious reasons, and the number claiming ex- emptions for medical reasons. TMA supported HB 2474, and Dr.
Van Ramshorst testified in favor of it. But after it cleared the House, the bill stalled in the Senate Health and Hu- man Services Committee. Dr. Van Ramshorst told the House
Public Health Committee that some of his pediatric patients are immunosup- pressed, and parents of those children would want to know campus-level information about the number of chil- dren exempt from vaccinations. Also, he noted, some private schools already provide that information at the cam- pus level. Representative Sheffield said,
“What was perplexing to me [about HB 2171 and HB 2474] was how many people opposed this on the incorrect grounds that they thought we were
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