Update Disease Control Statutes

The bill amends various statutes governing the operations of the department of public health and environment (department) regarding disease control. Specifically, sections 1 through 9 of the bill:

• Repeal the governor's expert emergency epidemic response committee (GEEERC);
• Direct the state board of health to review and approve the department's emergency response and recovery plan every 3 years; and
• Require the executive director of the department or, if the executive director is not the chief medical officer, the chief medical officer to convene a group of subject matter experts to develop crisis standards of care to be used in responding to a public health emergency.

Sections 10 through 15 modify school immunization provisions as follows to:

• Allow the records of a physician assistant to be used to create a certificate of immunization for a student;
• Eliminate a provision regarding a plan for complying with immunization requirements since it is not one of the ways for complying with school immunization requirements;
• Repeal the 14-day period within which a student whose certificate of immunization is not up to date to comply with immunization requirements to attend school and instead direct the state board of health to establish a timeline for compliance that is no shorter than 14 days after notice of noncompliance is received;
• Extend from February 15 to April 15 the deadline for a school to distribute the annual letter to parents specifying the school's aggregate immunization rates and the immunization requirements applicable for the next school year;
• Remove gendered pronouns and replace them with gender-neutral language; and
• Repeal the requirement for schools to notify the department and the local public health agency when a student is suspended or expelled from school for noncompliance with immunization requirements.

Section 16 extends from July 15 to September 15 the date by which the department is required to submit to the general assembly an annual report summarizing health-care-associated infections data received from health facilities in the state. Section 17 repeals the requirement for certain health-care providers to offer a hepatitis C screening test to individuals born between 1945 and 1965 and instead directs the state board of health to adopt standards, consistent with recommendations from the federal centers for disease control and prevention, for hepatitis C screening tests.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)