BILL NUMBER: SB 1659 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 1025
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 29, 1996
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 27, 1996
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 30, 1996
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 30, 1996
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 28, 1996
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 19, 1996
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 5, 1996
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 24, 1996
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 11, 1996
INTRODUCED BY Senators Peace and Calderon
FEBRUARY 21, 1996
An act to amend Section 128735 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to privacy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1659, Peace. Personal rights: privacy.
(1) Existing law, the California Constitution, provides that all
people have certain inalienable rights, including the right to
privacy.
This bill would create the Joint Task Force on Personal
Information and Privacy to make recommendations as to what changes to
existing laws relating to the use or distribution of personal
information about individuals by public and private entities are
necessary to ensure that state law adequately protects the right of
privacy and addresses the issues raised by the rapidly changing
nature of information technology and systems. The bill would require
the Legislative Analyst to compile the task force findings and
recommendations on or before March 1, 1998. The bill would include a
statement of legislative findings concerning the right to privacy.
This bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 1999.
(2) Existing law requires every organization that operates,
conducts, or maintains a health facility, and the officers of the
organization, to make and file specified reports with the Office of
Statewide Health Planning and Development.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the
patient's rights of confidentiality shall not be violated in any
manner, and would exempt patient social security numbers and other
specified information from the disclosure requirements of the
California Public Records Act.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares the
following:
(a) All people have an inalienable right to privacy as declared in
Section 1 of Article I of the California Constitution.
(b) Advances in technology have made it easier to create, acquire,
and analyze detailed personal information about an individual.
(c) Personal information, including information about a person's
financial history, shopping habits, medical history, and travel
patterns, is continuously being created.
(d) The gathering of information, coupled with advances in
technology, can benefit consumers and improve the flow of commerce in
the state.
SEC. 2. Section 128735 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
128735. Every organization that operates, conducts, or maintains
a health facility and the officers thereof, shall make and file with
the office, at the times as the office shall require, all of the
following reports on forms specified by the office that shall be in
accord where applicable with the systems of accounting and uniform
reporting required by this part, except the reports required pursuant
to subdivision (g) shall be limited to hospitals:
(a) A balance sheet detailing the assets, liabilities, and net
worth of the health facility at the end of its fiscal year.
(b) A statement of income, expenses, and operating surplus or
deficit for the annual fiscal period, and a statement of ancillary
utilization and patient census.
(c) A statement detailing patient revenue by payer, including, but
not limited to, Medicare, Medi-Cal, and other payers, and revenue
center except that hospitals authorized to report as a group pursuant
to subdivision (d) of Section 128760 are not required to report
revenue by revenue center.
(d) A statement of cash-flows, including, but not limited to,
ongoing and new capital expenditures and depreciation.
(e) A statement reporting the information required in subdivisions
(a), (b), (c), and (d) for each separately licensed health facility
operated, conducted, or maintained by the reporting organization,
except those hospitals authorized to report as a group pursuant to
subdivision (d) of Section 128760.
(f) The office shall consult with the County Hospital Committee of
the California Hospital Association, the County Supervisors
Association of California, and the California Association of Public
Hospitals to improve the accuracy of indigent care revenue reporting
and shall present legislative or regulatory recommendations for such
improvements by March 30, 1985.
(g) A Hospital Discharge Abstract Data Record that includes all of
the following:
(1) Date of birth.
(2) Sex.
(3) Race.
(4) ZIP Code.
(5) Patient social security number, if it is contained in the
patient's medical record.
(6) Prehospital care and resuscitation, if any, including all of
the following:
(A) "Do not resuscitate" (DNR) order at admission.
(B) "Do not resuscitate" (DNR) order after admission.
(7) Admission date.
(8) Source of admission.
(9) Type of admission.
(10) Discharge date.
(11) Principal diagnosis and whether the condition was present at
admission.
(12) Other diagnoses and whether the conditions were present at
admission.
(13) External cause of injury.
(14) Principal procedure and date.
(15) Other procedures and dates.
(16) Total charges.
(17) Disposition of patient.
(18) Expected source of payment.
It is the expressed intent of the Legislature that the patient's
rights of confidentiality shall not be violated in any manner.
Patient social security numbers and any other data elements that the
office believes could be used to determine the identity of an
individual patient shall be exempt from the disclosure requirements
of the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with
Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code).
(h) No person reporting data pursuant to this section shall be
liable for damages in any action based on the use or misuse of
patient-identifiable data that has been mailed or otherwise
transmitted to the office pursuant to the requirements of subdivision
(g).
A hospital or its designee shall semiannually file the Hospital
Discharge Abstract Data Record not later than six months after the
end of each semiannual period, commencing six months after January 1,
1986. A hospital may submit the Hospital Discharge Abstract Data
Record in a computer tape format, and a hospital shall use coding
from the International Classification of Diseases in reporting
diagnoses and procedures.
SEC. 3. (a) The Joint Task Force on Personal Information and
Privacy is hereby created. The mission of the task force shall be to
make recommendations as to what changes, if any, to existing laws
relating to the use or distribution of personal information about
individuals by public and private entities are necessary to ensure
the following:
(1) That state law adequately protects the right of privacy
guaranteed by Section 1 of Article I of the California Constitution.
(2) That state law adequately addresses the issues raised by the
rapidly changing nature of information technology and systems.
(b) The issues addressed by the task force may include, but need
not be limited to, the following:
(1) Privacy issues raised by the practices of the direct marketing
industry, including the target marketing of consumers who do not
wish to have information about them gathered or distributed, or who
do not wish to be contacted by direct marketing firms.
(2) Privacy issues raised by the practices of the internet
industry, including the gathering of information about individuals'
patterns of access to internet sites, archival retrieval of messages
posted to newsgroups and message boards, access to electronic mail,
and encryption and digital signature technologies.
(3) Privacy issues related to the finance and credit industries,
including the gathering and distribution of data related to consumers'
credit transactions, "opt-out" mechanisms for consumers, and
identity theft.
(4) Privacy issues related to the use of medical records.
(5) Privacy issues related to the use and distribution of public
records kept by state and local government agencies, including the
sale of computerized public records to private information brokers
and others.
(6) Issues related to the mechanisms in place to enforce privacy
laws, including the issues raised by the past defunding of the Office
of Information Practices.
(c) The task force shall be comprised of six members. Three
members shall be Members of the Senate appointed by the Senate Rules
Committee, one of whom shall be appointed as the chairperson. Three
members shall be Members of the Assembly appointed by the Speaker of
the Assembly. The task force shall conduct its work in close
consultation with an advisory committee, and any subcommittees of
that advisory committee deemed appropriate by the task force. The
task force shall appoint the members of the advisory committee. The
composition of the membership of the advisory committee shall, to
the extent feasible, be balanced, with an equal number of industry
and consumer representatives on the committee. The advisory
committee shall include at least one representative of each of the
following:
(1) The direct marketing industry.
(2) The credit reporting industry.
(3) The banking and finance industry.
(4) The insurance industry.
(5) The telecommunications industry.
(6) The internet industry.
(7) Print and broadcast media.
(8) The retail sales industry.
(9) The private investigation industry.
(10) The health care industry.
(11) Consumer organizations.
(12) Civil rights and privacy rights groups.
(13) Other appropriate public interest groups.
(14) State agencies.
(15) Local agencies.
(16) Law enforcement.
(17) Nonprofit membership organizations.
(d) The Legislative Analyst shall compile the task force findings
and recommendations, including any dissenting opinions, into a report
on or before March 1, 1998.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 1999,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that is enacted before January 1, 1999, deletes or extends that date.