Sharing of Patient Health-Care Information

The bill requires the behavioral health administration in the department of human services (BHA) to create a universal behavioral health consent form for disclosure of an individual's protected health information in compliance with the federal "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996".

The office of e-health innovation in the governor's office is required to convene a working group to determine how to most effectively create a centralized digital consent repository that allows patients to provide, extend, deny, and revoke consent for sharing their medical data and information between physical and behavioral health-care providers, family members, community organizations, payers, and state agencies at any time. By January 1, 2026, the working group is required to submit a report including recommendations regarding the feasibility of creating a centralized digital consent repository to specified committees of the general assembly.

The BHA behavioral health administration in the department of human services is required to create a friends and family input form (form) to allow an individual to provide a treating professional or a licensed or designated facility or organization with information related to a patient receiving mental health or substance use services. The bill prohibits an individual from knowingly and intentionally making a false statement on the form; performing this act constitutes an unclassified misdemeanor penalized by a fine of not more than $1,000.

For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $50,604 is appropriated to the department of human services to implement the bill.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)