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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 7301
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 5212
Referred to Committee on PUBLIC HEALTH
Introduced by:
(PH)
AN ACT CONCERNING THE D EPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH'S
RECOMMENDATIONS REGA RDING REMOTE ACCESS TO
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL R ECORDS BY THE DEPART MENT OF
PUBLIC HEALTH.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 19a-215 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2019): 2
(a) For the purposes of this section: 3
(1) "Clinical laboratory" means any facility or other area used for 4
microbiological, serological, chemical, hematologic al, 5
immunohematological, biophysical, cytological, pathological or other 6
examinations of human body fluids, secretions, excretions or excised 7
or exfoliated tissues, for the purpose of providing information for the 8
diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any human disease or 9
impairment, for the assessment of human health or for the presence of 10
drugs, poisons or other toxicological substances. 11
(2) "Commissioner's list of reportable diseases, emergency illnesses 12
and health conditions" and "commissioner's list of reportable 13 Raised Bill No. 7301
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laboratory findings" means the lists developed pursuant to section 19a-14
2a. 15
(3) "Confidential" means confidentiality of information pursuant to 16
section 19a-25. 17
(4) "Health care provider" means a person who has direct or 18
supervisory responsibility for the delivery of health care or medical 19
services, including licensed physicians, nurse practitioners, nurse 20
midwives, physician assistants, nurses, dentists, medical examiners 21
and administrators, superintendents and managers of health care 22
facilities. 23
(5) "Reportable diseases, emergency illnesses and health conditions" 24
means the diseases, illnesses, conditions or syndromes designated by 25
the Commissioner of Public Health on the list required pursuant to 26
section 19a-2a. 27
(b) A health care provider shall report each case occurring in such 28
provider's practice, of any disease on the commissioner's list of 29
reportable diseases, emergency illnesses and health conditions to the 30
director of health of the town, city or borough in which such case 31
resides and to the Department of Public Health, no later than twelve 32
hours after such provider's recognition of the disease. Such reports 33
shall be in writing, by telephone or in an electronic format approved 34
by the commissioner. [Such reports of disease shall be confidential and 35
not open to public inspection except as provided for in section 19a-25.] 36
(c) A clinical laboratory shall report each finding identified by such 37
laboratory of any disease identified on the commissioner's list of 38
reportable laboratory findings to the Department of Public Health not 39
later than forty-eight hours after such laboratory's finding. A clinical 40
laboratory that reports an average of more than thirty findings per 41
month shall make such reports electronically in a format approved by 42
the commissioner. Any clinical laboratory that reports an average of 43
less than thirty findings per month shall submit such reports, in 44 Raised Bill No. 7301
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writing, by telephone or in an electronic format approved by the 45
commissioner. [All such reports shall be confidential and not open to 46
public inspection except as provided for in section 19a-25.] The 47
Department of Public Health shall provide a copy of all such reports to 48
the director of health of the town, city or borough in which the affected 49
person resides or, in the absence of such information, the town where 50
the specimen originated. 51
(d) When a local director of health, the local director's authorized 52
agent or the Department of Public Health receives a report of a disease 53
or laboratory finding on the commissioner's lists of reportable diseases, 54
emergency illnesses and health conditions and laboratory findings, the 55
local director of health, the local director's authorized agent or the 56
Department of Public Health may contact first the reporting health 57
care provider and then the person with the reportable finding to obtain 58
such information as may be necessary to lead to the effective control of 59
further spread of such disease. In the case of reportable communicable 60
diseases and laboratory findings, this information may include 61
obtaining the identification of persons who may be the source or 62
subsequent contacts of such infection. 63
(e) The Department of Public Health shall have access, including 64
remote access, in a manner approved by the Commissioner of Public 65
Health, to each electronic medical record that concerns a reportable 66
disease, emergency illness or health condition listed by the 67
commissioner pursuant to subdivision (9) of section 19a-2a that occurs 68
at a hospital, as defined in section 19a-490, licensed pursuant to 69
chapter 368v. 70
[(e)] (f) All personal information obtained from disease prevention 71
and control investigations as performed in subsections (c) and (d) of 72
this section including the health care provider's name and the identity 73
of the reported case of disease and suspected source persons and 74
contacts shall not be divulged to anyone and shall be held strictly 75
confidential pursuant to section 19a-25, by the local director of health 76
and the director's authorized agent and by the Department of Public 77 Raised Bill No. 7301
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Health. 78
[(f)] (g) Any person who violates any reporting or confidentiality 79
provision of this section shall be fined not more than five hundred 80
dollars. No provision of this section shall be deemed to supersede 81
section 19a-584. 82
Sec. 2. Subsection (c) of section 19a-72 of the general statutes is 83
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective 84
October 1, 2019): 85
(c) The Department of Public Health shall be provided such access 86
to the records of any health care provider, as the department deems 87
necessary, and remote access to the records of any hospital to perform 88
case finding or other quality improvement audits to ensure 89
completeness of reporting and data accuracy consistent with the 90
purposes of this section. 91
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2019 19a-215
Sec. 2 October 1, 2019 19a-72(c)
PH Joint Favorable