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By Serna
H.B. No. 1390
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1390:
By Berlanga
C.S.H.B. No. 1390
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the regulation of homeopathic and integrated medicine.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 3.06(a), Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil
Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
(a) Nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to discriminate against a school or system of
medical practice, prevent the use of any vitamin, mineral, food supplement, or any choice of
therapy that is legally available to the public, or to affect or limit in any way the application or
use of the principles, tenets, or teachings of any church in the ministration to the sick or suffering
by prayer or pastoral counseling without the use of any drug or material substance represented as
being medically effective.
SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil
Statutes), is amended by adding Section 3.082 to read as follows:
Sec. 3.082. DISCIPLINARY ACTION BASED ON USE OF CERTAIN TYPES OF
PRACTICE PROHIBITED. (a) In this section:
(1) "Chelation therapy" means medical therapy used to restore cellular homeostasis
through the use of intravenous, metal-binding, and bioinorganic agents.
(2) "Environmental medicine" means the medical specialty that deals with the
adverse health effects of environmental toxins and food sensitivities.
(3) "Herbal medicine" includes plant-based natural remedies, including remedies
that may have originated in ancient cultures and Native American, Ayurvedic, or Chinese
traditions.
(4) "Homeopathy" means a system of medicine employing substances of animal,
vegetable, or mineral origin that are given in micro dosages and prepared according to
homeopathic pharmacology in accordance with the principle that a substance that produces
symptoms in a healthy person can, in micro dosages, cure those symptoms in an ill person.
(5) "Integrated medicine" means the use, in combination, of allopathic,
homeopathic, or other systems, schools, and methods of treatment to treat any illness or
condition. The practices of integrated medicine include homeopathy, orthomolecular therapy,
environmental medicine, herbal medicine, and chelation therapy.
(6) "Orthomolecular therapy" means therapy to provide the optimum concentration
of substances normally present in the human body, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids,
and enzymes.
(b) A physician may not be subject to disciplinary action under this Act solely for the use of a
therapy, including chelation therapy, environmental medicine, herbal medicine, homeopathy,
integrated medicine, or orthomolecular therapy, that contains a procedure, practice, or treatment
that has proven medical value.
SECTION 3. Sections 431.002(14) and (26), Health and Safety Code, are amended to read as
follows:
(14) "Drug" means articles recognized in the official compendium [United States
Pharmacopoeia National Formulary,] or any supplement to it, articles designed or intended for
use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other
animals, articles, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of
man or other animals, and articles intended for use as a component of any article specified in this
subdivision. The term does not include devices or their components, parts, or accessories or
dietary supplements as defined in the federal Act. A food for which a claim is made in
accordance with Section 403(r) of the federal Act, and for which the claim is approved by the
secretary, is not a drug solely because the label or labeling contains such a claim.
(26) "Official compendium" means the official United States Pharmacopoeia, the
official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, the National Formulary, or any supplement to one of these
documents [it].
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in
both houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule
requiring bills to be read on three several days in each house be suspended, and this rule is
hereby suspended.