§ 144.009.Applicability of Other Law

A one-line supremacy provision, and the omission in it is the important part.

This chapter supersedes other state law regarding the retention or destruction of patient records.

Texas law requires medical records to be kept — licensing rules impose retention periods on hospitals and physicians, and the Health and Safety Code and the medical practice statutes each address the subject. A facility ordered to destroy records under this chapter would otherwise be violating those requirements.

This section resolves that in the chapter’s favour.

What it does not say is the point: it supersedes other STATE law. Federal requirements are untouched, and the chapter does not attempt to reach them.

That limit is already built into the definitions. "Record" is defined to mean a medical record federal law does not require to be retained, or for which the federal requirement has expired — so a federally protected record is not a record the chapter can order destroyed in the first place.

The two provisions together are careful drafting. The definition prevents an order reaching federally required records; this section clears the state requirements out of the way for everything else.

The supersession is subject-matter specific, confined to retention and destruction of patient records. Other state law about medical records — confidentiality, patient access, disclosure in litigation — operates as usual, subject to the sealing and denial provisions.