BILL NUMBER: AB 1683	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Jones

                        FEBRUARY 13, 2014

   An act to add Section 103886 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to disease reporting.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1683, as introduced, Jones. Ken Maddy California Cancer
Registry.
   Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to
establish a statewide system for the collection of information
determining the incidence of cancer known as the Ken Maddy California
Cancer Registry. Existing law authorizes the department to designate
any demographic parts of the state as regional cancer incidence
reporting areas and establish regional cancer registries to provide
cancer incidence data. Under existing law, all cancers diagnosed or
treated in the reported area are required to be reported to the
representative of the department authorized to compile that data, or
any other person or entity designated to cooperate with that
representative. Existing regulations require cancer reporting
facilities and physicians to employ a mechanism to ensure that their
patients are informed that the facility will report each patient with
cancer to the State Department of Public Health as required by law.
   Under existing law, health care practitioners, including, among
others, physicians and surgeons, and any hospital or other facility
providing diagnostic or treatment services to patients with cancer
are required to grant to the department or the authorized
representative access to all records that would identify cases of
cancer or would establish characteristics of the cancer, treatment of
the cancer, or medical status of any identified cancer patient. All
information collected pursuant to those provisions is generally
required to be kept confidential.
   This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to
inform a patient diagnosed with cancer or receiving cancer therapy
treatment from a hospital or other facility providing therapy to that
patient within an area designated as a cancer reporting area of the
reporting requirement. This bill would require the department to
notify the patient within 6 months of his or her case being reported
to the department. The bill would also prohibit the department from
disclosing confidential patient information to certain specified
persons or entities until the department informs the patient of the
reporting requirement. The bill would also allow a patient to refuse
to participate in any research study and authorizes a patient to
request that his or her contact information be withheld from health
researchers.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 103886 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
   103886.  (a) A patient diagnosed with cancer by a physician and
surgeon, dentist, podiatrist, or other health care practitioner or a
patient receiving cancer therapy treatment from any hospital or other
facility providing therapy to that patient within an area designated
as a cancer reporting area shall be informed by the department of
the reporting requirement described in Section 103885. The department
shall notify the patient within six months of his or her case being
reported to the department.
   (b) The department shall not disclose confidential information to
any persons, other states' cancer registries, federal cancer control
agencies, local health officers, or health researchers pursuant to
Section 103885, until the department informs the patient of the
reporting requirement described in Section 103885.
   (c) The patient may refuse to participate in any research study
and may request that his or her contact information be withheld from
those persons or health researchers who obtain the patient's
confidential information pursuant to Section 103885.
   (d) All notifications to the patient required under this section
shall be distributed in a cost-effective manner.
   (e) The department shall adopt regulations as it determines are
necessary for the implementation of this section in accordance with
the Administrative Procedure Act, Chapter 3.5 (commencing with
Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government
Code.