Bill Text: NH HB383 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relative to the immunization/vaccination registry.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 3-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2015-06-04 - Sen. Sanborn moved to Rerefer to Committee, Div. 13Y-11N, Motion Adopted; Senate Journal 17 [HB383 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2015-HB383-Introduced.html
HB 383 - AS INTRODUCED
2015 SESSION
01/05
HOUSE BILL 383
AN ACT relative to the immunization/vaccination registry.
SPONSORS: Rep. Kurk, Hills 2; Rep. Cordelli, Carr 4; Sen. Sanborn, Dist 9
COMMITTEE: Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs
This bill clarifies certain options relating to the immunization/vaccination registry and exempts the registry from the right-to-know law.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
15-0772
01/05
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Fifteen
AN ACT relative to the immunization/vaccination registry.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Communicable Disease; Rulemaking; Reference Change. Amend RSA 141-C:6, XVIII to read as follows:
XVIII. The immunization/vaccination registry established under RSA 141-C:20-f.
2 Communicable Disease; Immunization/Vaccination Registry. RSA 141-C:20-f is repealed and reenacted to read as follows:
141-C:20-f Immunization/ Vaccination Registry.
I. The department shall establish and maintain a state immunization/vaccination registry. The registry shall be a repository of accurate, complete and current immunization/vaccination records to aid, coordinate, and promote immunization/vaccination uptake in accordance with paragraph VI and provide for vaccine inventory monitoring and controls.
II. No patient, or the patient’s parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, shall be required to participate in the immunization/vaccination registry.
(a) Adult opt-in. If the patient is an adult, the patient may choose to participate in the registry. Notice of this option shall be provided in writing at the time of the immunization, be succinct, be in plain English, and appear on any form or written communication to an individual relating to immunization/vaccination or to the registry. The exercise of the option shall be in the form of a check-off box, date, and patient signature. For each adult who elects to participate in the registry, a health care provider shall provide to the department or to the immunization registry such information relating to an immunization/vaccination as the commissioner may determine. No health care provider shall provide to the department or to the immunization/vaccination registry the name of any adult patient who does not elect to participate in the registry.
(b) Minor opt-out. If the patient is a minor, the patient shall participate in the immunization/vaccination registry unless the patient’s parent or guardian opts out of reporting of immunization/vaccination information. Notice of this option shall be provided in writing at the time of immunization/vaccination, be succinct, be in plain English, and appear on any form or written communication to an individual relating to immunization/vaccination or to the immunization/vaccination registry. The exercise of the option shall be in the form of a check-off box, date, and signature of the patient’s parent or guardian. For each minor patient whose parent or guardian does not exercise this option, a health care provider shall provide to the department or to the immunization/vaccination registry such information relating to an immunization/vaccination as the commissioner may by rule require. No health care provider shall provide to the department or to the immunization/vaccination registry the name of any minor patient whose parent or guardian elects not to participate in the registry.
III. Except as provided in paragraph II, no information relating to an immunization/vaccination shall be reported to the department or to the immunization/vaccination registry.
IV. Access to the information in the registry shall be limited to primary care physicians, nurses, other appropriate health care providers as determined by the commissioner, schools, and child care agencies, but only on a case-by-case basis for named individuals in their care, and a record of each such case shall be kept. Government health agencies demonstrating a need for such information, as determined by the commissioner for the purposes set forth in paragraph VI, shall have such access as the commissioner may determine. Access by health agencies of other states or the federal government, or by researchers, shall be limited to de-identified data only.
V. A patient who participates in the immunization/vaccination registry, or the patient’s parent or guardian if the registrant is a minor:
(a) May review and correct information contained in the immunization/vaccination registry in which case only the corrected information may remain in the registry, and no other record of the transaction, including the request itself, shall be kept; or
(b) May withdraw from participation at any time and remove information from the immunization/vaccination registry by submitting a request in writing to the department in which case no information relating to the patient shall remain in the registry, and no record of the transaction, including the request itself, shall be kept.
VI. The information contained in the registry shall be used for the following purposes:
(a) To ensure that registrants receive all required immunizations/vaccinations in a timely manner by providing access to the registrant’s immunization/vaccination record and to provide registrants with information about recommended immunizations/vaccinations.
(b) To improve immunization/vaccination rates by facilitating notice to registrants of overdue or upcoming immunizations/vaccinations.
(c) To control communicable diseases by assisting in the identification of individuals who require immediate immunization/vaccination in the event of a disease outbreak.
VII. The commissioner shall adopt rules under RSA 541-A concerning the following:
(a) The establishment and maintenance of the immunization/vaccination registry.
(b) The methods for submitting and content of reports of immunizations/vaccinations.
(c) Procedures, if the patient is an adult, for the patient to choose to participate in the registry and, if the patient is a minor, for the patient’s parent or guardian to decline to participate in the registry.
(d) Procedures for the registrant, or the registrant’s parent or guardian if the registrant is a minor, to review and correct information contained in the registry.
(e) Procedures for the registrant, or the registrant’s parent or guardian if the registrant is a minor, to withdraw consent for participation at any time and to remove information from the registry.
(f) Limits on and methods of access to the registry by those authorized to gain access under paragraph IV of this section.
(g) Procedures for managed care organizations to obtain summary statistics of immunization information on managed care organization members from the registry.
VIII. Any person reporting, receiving, or disclosing information to or from the registry as authorized by this section or by any rule adopted pursuant to this section shall not be liable for civil damages of any kind connected with such submission or disclosure of immunization/vaccination information.
IX. Nothing in this section is intended to affect the obligations of persons under RSA 141-C:20-a to have their children immunized/vaccinated.
X. Nothing in this section shall preclude the right of the patient, or the patient’s parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, to claim exemption from immunization/vaccination as defined in RSA 141-C:20-c; nor shall anything in this section require such patient to be included in the registry if the patient, or the patient’s parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, objects thereto on any grounds, including but not limited to, that such registry conflicts with the religious beliefs of the patient, or the patient’s parent or guardian if the patient is a minor.
XI. No health care provider shall discriminate in any way against a person solely because that person elects not to participate in the immunization/vaccination registry, and no health care provider shall discriminate in any way or refuse medical care to a person because that person declines one or more immunizations/vaccinations.
XII. Information collected under this section shall be treated as confidential and the records containing such information shall be exempt from the public disclosure provisions of RSA 91-A.
XIII. No information in the immunization/vaccination registry shall be transferred or otherwise made available to a health information organization, as defined in RSA 332-I:1, II(c).
3 Repeal. RSA 5-C:19, II(a)(10), relative to birth information, is repealed.
4 Effective Date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
