Bill Text: NY S04119 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits emergency service providers from selling patient health information without written consent.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2019-10-07 - signed chap.358 [S04119 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S04119-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4119 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 28, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LIU -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to the protection of private patient information by ambulance services The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2 3006-a to read as follows: 3 § 3006-a. Patient privacy. 1. As used in this section: 4 (a) "Individual identifying information" means information identifying 5 or tending to identify a patient. 6 (b) "Marketing" means advertising, detailing, marketing, promotion, or 7 any other activity that is intended to be used to influence business 8 volume, sales or market share or evaluate the effectiveness of marketing 9 practices or marketing personnel, regardless of whether the beneficiary 10 of the marketing is a governmental, for-profit, or not-for-profit enti- 11 ty. 12 2. No ambulance service, advanced life support first response service, 13 or employee, member or agent thereof shall disclose, sell, transfer, 14 exchange, provide or use any individual identifying information to any 15 person or entity for the purpose of marketing. 16 3. Notwithstanding subdivision two of this section, and subject to 17 otherwise applicable law, individual identifying information may be: 18 (a) disclosed, sold, transferred or exchanged to: 19 (i) the patient who is the subject of the information, or a person 20 authorized to make health care decisions for the patient; 21 (ii) a health care provider providing care or treatment to the 22 patient, for the purpose of such care or treatment; or a health informa- 23 tion system subject to regulations of the department, for the purpose of 24 such care or treatment; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02658-01-9S. 4119 2 1 (iii) an officer, inspector or investigator for a government health, 2 licensing or law enforcement agency acting under appropriate legal 3 authority; 4 (iv) a person authorized by a court order or a subpoena to receive 5 such information; 6 (v) the patient's health plan, insurer, or third party payer, or an 7 agent thereof, for the purpose of payment or reimbursement for health 8 care services, including determining compliance with the terms of cover- 9 age or medical necessity, or utilization review; 10 (vi) a person or entity to whom, and for a purpose for which, disclo- 11 sure or transfer is otherwise explicitly authorized or required by law; 12 (vii) a person or entity, for the purpose of conducting quality assur- 13 ance or evaluating the performance of an ambulance service, advanced 14 life support first response service, or any employee, member or agent 15 thereof; 16 (viii) a person or entity acting as an employee or agent of a person 17 or entity under any preceding paragraph of this subdivision, for the 18 purpose of and consistent with that paragraph; or 19 (ix) a government entity as provided by law; and 20 (b) used by such ambulance service, advanced life support first 21 responder service, or employee, member or agent thereof, for training, 22 promotion, staff recognition or recruitment purposes, consistent with 23 applicable law, provided the patient or a qualified person as defined by 24 paragraph (G) of subdivision one of section eighteen of this chapter has 25 provided consent to such use in a separate, stand-alone document. Such 26 consent shall be limited to the particular type or types of use and 27 specific transaction or transactions for which such consent is given. 28 4. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the collection, use, trans- 29 fer, or sale of patient data by zip code, geographic region, or medical 30 specialty for marketing purposes, providing it does not contain individ- 31 ual identifying information. 32 5. This section shall not prevent a person from disclosing, selling, 33 transferring, or exchanging for value his or her own individual identi- 34 fying information, for any purpose; provided that the information does 35 not include individual identifying information pertaining to any other 36 person. 37 6. This section does not prohibit a not-for-profit or governmental 38 ambulance service or advanced life support first response service, or 39 agent thereof, from using a patient's name and address in order to 40 contact such patient or a family member at such address with requests 41 for donations to such service; providing that such use shall not include 42 disclosing any individual identifying information. 43 7. No person or entity to whom or which individual identifying infor- 44 mation is disclosed, sold, transferred or exchanged shall disclose, 45 sell, transfer or exchange it to any person or entity other than for the 46 lawful purpose for which it was disclosed, sold, transferred or 47 exchanged to the person or entity, and without satisfactory assurance 48 that the recipient will safeguard the records from being disclosed or 49 used for marketing purposes. 50 8. This section does not authorize any disclosure, sale, transfer, or 51 exchange of individual identifying information that is not otherwise 52 authorized or required by law. 53 9. In addition to the commissioner's authority to enforce this section 54 under section three thousand twelve of this article, the attorney gener- 55 al shall have the authority to bring an action to enforce compliance 56 with this section without referral by the commissioner.S. 4119 3 1 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 2 it shall have become a law; provided that, effective immediately, the 3 commissioner of health may make regulations and take other actions 4 reasonably necessary to implement this act on such date.
