The Department of Health Services shall establish a list of reportable diseases and conditions, and specify requirements (e.g. the timeliness related to the reporting of each disease and condition, the mechanisms for reporting, and the content to be included) for the reports made. The diseases listed as reportable shall be properly reported as required to the department by the health officer.
Health care providers and laboratories shall report HIV infection cases and patient names to local health officers in order to keep California competitive for federal HIV and AIDS funding. Local health officers shall report unduplicated HIV cases by name to the State Department of Health Services.
Identifying information for HIV cases reported to the local health officer and the State Department of Health Services shall not be disclosed to the federal government except when the confidential information is necessary to the investigation, control, or surveillance of disease.
As per 121025, all reported cases of HIV infection shall not be disclosed, discovered or compelled to be produced in any civil, criminal, administrative, or other proceeding.
(a) Physician or surgeon may disclose the results of a patient's confirmed positive HIV test to a person reasonably thought to be the patient's spouse, a person reasonably believed to be the patient's sexual partner, a person reasonably believed to have shared hypodermic needles with the patient, or to the local health officer. However, no identifying information about the individual may be disclosed, except as per 121022. (b) The physician/surgeon shall notify the patient of his intent to notify such persons of the results and attempt to obtain the patient's voluntary consent for disclosure.
If a health care service plan requests medical information from providers in order to determine whether to approve, modify, or deny requests for authorization of services, the plan shall request only the information reasonably necessary to make the determination.
Commencing July 1, 2009, or within one year of the establishment of a state electronic laboratory reporting system, whichever is later, a report of a reportable disease or condition generated by a laboratory shall be submitted electronically in a manner specified by the Department of Public Health. This electronic reporting requirement shall not apply to reports of HIV infections. The department shall allow laboratories that receive incomplete patient information to report the name of the provider who submitted the request to the local health officer.
State and local health department employees and contractors must sign confidentiality agreements before accessing confidential HIV related public health records. Such agreements shall include information of penalties for breach of confidentiality and procedures for reporting breach.
HIV or AIDS related public health records containing personally identifying information, developed or acquired by public health agencies shall be confidential and not disclosed except as otherwise provided by law for public health purposes or with written authorization from the person who is the subject of the record or their guardian or conservator.
Disclosure of HIV/AIDS records by a state or local public health agency for public health or research purposes shall be limited to the information necessary for the purpose of that disclosure, and shall be made only upon agreement that the information will be kept confidential and will not be further disclosed without written authorization of the subject or his/her guardian/conservator.
