§ 74A.001.Definitions

Five definitions, and the pattern of the first three is worth noting.

"Health care provider" means any individual or institution duly licensed, certified, registered, or chartered by this state to provide health care or medical care, including a physician. The term expressly includes an officer, director, shareholder, member, partner, manager, owner, or affiliate, and an employee, independent contractor, or agent acting in the course and scope of the relationship.

"Health information exchange" takes its meaning from the Health and Safety Code and carries the same two inclusions — the owners and affiliates, and the employees, contractors, and agents.

Repeating the inclusion for both means the protection reaches everyone on either side of the data transfer, not only the two entities.

"Physician" lists six forms: an individual licensed to practice medicine, a professional association, a partnership or limited liability partnership, a limited liability company, a nonprofit health corporation certified by the Texas Medical Board, and a single legal entity authorized to practice medicine owned by a group of physicians.

The list is more current than the medical liability chapter's equivalent, which still cites repealed articles of the civil statutes for the professional association and limited liability company forms.

"Gross negligence" and "malice" are borrowed from the damages chapter, which supplies the standards the protection turns on.