2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB3560
HB3560 brings facilities licensed under Health and Safety Code Chapter 577, including private mental hospitals and other covered mental health facilities, into the state's employee misconduct registry framework.
Official caption: Relating to the licensing of mental hospitals and mental health facilities and the definition of facility for the purposes of the employee misconduct registry.
Official report lists House author(s): Pierson, Jones, Jolanda. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB3560 brings facilities licensed under Health and Safety Code Chapter 577, including private mental hospitals and other covered mental health facilities, into the state's employee misconduct registry framework.
- The registry framework covers employees as defined in Chapter 253—generally workers providing personal services who are not state-licensed to perform those services, plus nurse aides—not every licensed professional simply because they work in a hospital.
- The license-based scope matters: this does not place every mental health office or all state and federal facilities into the new category.
- The Health and Human Services Commission must implement the act only if the Legislature specifically funds that purpose; without that appropriation, it may use other available money but is not required to do so.
What does it do?
HB3560 brings facilities licensed under Health and Safety Code Chapter 577, including private mental hospitals and other covered mental health facilities, into the state’s employee misconduct registry framework. It also requires their license applications to identify the person responsible for daily operations by name and address. The law took effect September 1, 2025. Final law.
The registry framework covers employees as defined in Chapter 253—generally workers providing personal services who are not state-licensed to perform those services, plus nurse aides—not every licensed professional simply because they work in a hospital. Existing law provides investigation, notice, hearing and judicial-review procedures for reportable abuse, neglect, exploitation and related misconduct. Covered facilities must check the misconduct and nurse aide registries before hiring and annually afterward, retain annual search results, and may not employ people listed for the specified misconduct. These are registry checks, not a newly enacted fingerprinting requirement. Registry law.
The license-based scope matters: this does not place every mental health office or all state and federal facilities into the new category. Chapter 577 has its own licensing requirements and exemptions. Licensing law.
The Health and Human Services Commission must implement the act only if the Legislature specifically funds that purpose; without that appropriation, it may use other available money but is not required to do so. Separate budget funding was enacted, as described below. This funding condition should not be mistaken for an appropriation inside HB3560 itself.
What changed along the way?
The introduced proposal amended two overlapping 2023 versions of the facility definition separately and used “licensed as a hospital” wording. The House committee substitute reconciled those versions into one list, preserved Chapter 555 facilities, and added facilities licensed under Chapter 577 without limiting that addition to hospitals. It also reorganized the daily-operations contact requirement and replaced possible immediate effectiveness with a fixed September 1, 2025 date. The many other facility types carried forward in the consolidated list were not all newly added by this bill.
The one indexed floor amendment, offered by Pierson and adopted May 5, added the commission’s funding condition. It survived in the House-passed, Senate and final texts. The Senate passed the measure without further amendment; there was no conference agreement. Amendment text; amendment index; history.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Patients could benefit when substantiated employee misconduct follows a worker across covered facilities, while naming the daily operator gives regulators a clearer point of accountability. Facilities face registry-checking and recordkeeping duties. Employees retain the existing contest and review procedures before the relevant findings become registry records; an accusation is not automatically a final finding.
The latest available fiscal note estimated about $3.06 million in state general-revenue-related costs over fiscal years 2026–27, five additional full-time-equivalent positions, and about $2.08 million in one-time technology costs across all funding sources. It identified up to 63 then-licensed facilities and anticipated no significant local-government fiscal impact. The introduced estimate was higher—about $3.76 million and seven positions—so it should not be presented as the final estimate. These are forecasts, not measured spending. Engrossed fiscal note; introduced fiscal note.
Separate enacted funding: SB1, Article IX, Section 18.25, provided $1,404,357 in general revenue, or $2,083,493 across all funds, in fiscal year 2026 for one-time registry and related technology changes, together with two full-time-equivalent positions in each fiscal year. It also increased the corresponding technology capital-budget authority; that authority is not a second $2.08 million appropriation. The governor’s veto proclamation did not remove this provision. The actual rider differs from the fiscal note’s five-position estimate and does not prove current staffing or completed implementation. Budget, printed pages IX-111–112 / PDF pages 1005–1006; veto proclamation.
Review boundary: This describes the statute, relevant pre-existing registry safeguards, and enacted funding—not a finding about any employee, facility’s compliance, or the commission’s current implementation status.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
