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.
Any health practitioner who performs a forensic medical examination of a person in the custody of law enforcement from whom evidence is sought in connection with a sexual assault crime, shall prepare a written report on standard form of the Office of Emergency Services and provided to law enforcement agency with custody of the individual. The examination and report is subject to the confidentiality requirements of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
The State Authorized Risk Assessment Tool for Sex Offenders (SARATSO) shall be administered by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to assess every eligible person who is incarcerated in state prison and every eligible person who is on parole if the person was not assessed prior to release from state prison). The Department of Mental Health shall administer the SARATSO to assess every eligible person who is committed to that department.
Notwithstanding the general confidentiality protections of Welf. & Inst. Code 5328, when the patient, in the opinion of his or her psychotherapist, presents a serious danger of violence to a reasonably foreseeable victim or victims, then any of the information or records may be released to that person or persons and to law enforcement agencies as the psychotherapist determines is needed for the protection of that person or persons.
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.
