BILL NUMBER: AB 2994 CHAPTERED 09/26/02 CHAPTER 926 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 25, 2002 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 2002 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 30, 2002 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 29, 2002 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 26, 2002 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 15, 2002 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 17, 2002 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 4, 2002 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Wright (Coauthors: Assembly Members Aroner, Longville, Robert Pacheco, and Wiggins) MARCH 4, 2002 An act to add Chapter 15 (commencing with Section 121340) to Part 4 of Division 105 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to communicable diseases. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2994, Wright. HIV reporting requirements. Existing law establishes the federal Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 1990, as amended in 2000, which provides funds to all states to establish a comprehensive community-based continuum of care, including primary medical care and support services for people with HIV infection and AIDS. This federal law requires a participating state to report certain information about HIV and AIDS, as specified. Noncompliance may result in ineligibility for federal funding. This bill would require the State Department of Health Services, in consultation with various entities, to determine, no later than December 31, 2005, whether California's HIV reporting system has achieved compliance with standards and criteria necessary to ensure continued federal funding for California under that federal act, as specified. This bill would require the department to inform the appropriate committees of the Legislature of its findings by December 31, 2005, and to report to those entities all written communications from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that indicate that California's HIV reporting system has not or will not meet federal standards and criteria for an HIV reporting system pursuant to that act. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) (1) The federal Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 1990, as amended October 20, 2000, requires every state to have an HIV reporting system in effect that meets standards to be recommended by the Institute of Medicine and implemented by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, by July 1, 2004. Any state failing to meet these standards could lose its eligibility to receive federal Ryan White funds for treatment, social services, housing, prevention, and various other services for persons with HIV. Funding would continue for only the minority of cases reported involving persons with AIDS. California's failure to have an HIV reporting system that meets these standards could result in the loss of a significant amount of funding for the state. (2) The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established surveillance guidelines for HIV that include criteria for completeness, including risk information, timeliness, and nonduplication, which guidelines are likely to be seriously considered for implementation by the Institute of Medicine. (3) The State Department of Health Services proposed, and the Legislature funded, a system of nonname HIV reporting in the 2000-01 fiscal year. Despite the available funding, this system is not planned to take effect until July 2002. The proposed reporting system is similar to one that failed in the State of Texas, and may not prove to be capable of meeting federal standards to ensure continued federal HIV/AIDS-related funding for California. (4) A backup reporting system is needed to go into effect promptly, to protect California's public health and continued federal funding, should the proposed nonname reporting system prove unlikely to meet federal standards. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide contingent authorization to the State Department of Health Services to design and implement a system of HIV reporting that will meet federal requirements and avoid the loss to California and its residents of tens of millions of dollars or more in federal HIV/AIDS-related funding. SEC. 2. Chapter 15 (commencing with Section 121340) is added to Part 4 of Division 105 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: CHAPTER 15. HIV REPORTING SYSTEMS 121340. (a) The State Department of Health Services, in consultation with the California Conference of Local Health Officers, the California Medical Association, HIV treatment providers, and public health and other stakeholders, shall determine, no later than December 31, 2005, whether California's HIV reporting system has achieved compliance with standards and criteria necessary to ensure continued federal funding for California under the federal Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-381), as amended October 20, 2000 (Public Law 106-345). (b) The department shall inform the appropriate committees of the Legislature of its findings under subdivision (a) by December 31, 2005. (c) The department shall also report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature all written communications from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the state received before December 31, 2005, that indicate that California's HIV reporting system has not or will not meet the federal standards and criteria for an HIV reporting system pursuant to the Ryan White CARE Act.