HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3754        FILED ON: 5/18/2011

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3696

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Eleven

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An Act relative to public health data sharing with the Boston Public Health Commission.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Paragraph (a) of Section 1 of appendix 2 of chapter 111 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “prevention,” the following words:-

public health surveillance,

SECTION 2.  Section 2 of appendix 2 of chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting the following definitions:-

“Department”, the Massachusetts department of public health.

“Division”, the Massachusetts division of health care finance and policy.

“Public health surveillance”, the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data for use in planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs and practice, to reduce morbidity and mortality and to improve health. 

SECTION 3. Section 7 of appendix 2 of chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after subsection (a)(16), the following subsection:-

(17) To receive, in a timely manner, confidential health data pertaining to the residents of the city from the department and the division for the purposes of public health surveillance and the preparation of the annual assessment of the public health needs of the city, said health data, unless specified otherwise, shall include either the zip code or census tract of the individual case and shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

(A) Records of births and deaths in the city, including address, zip code and census tract for each record, no later than February 15th of the year following the closure of the data set;

(B) Records of infant deaths linked to birth records, including address, zip code and census tract for each record, no later than February 15th of the year following the closure of the data set;

(C) Records of fetal deaths, no later than February 15th of the year following the closure of the data set;

(D) Case reports of HIV/AIDS diagnoses, provided that these reports shall be submitted not more than one month after receipt by the department of a case report and that such case reports shall include name and address for the purposes of prevention and control activities;

(E) Case reports of venereal disease, provided that these reports shall be submitted not more than three days after identification of a case and that such case reports shall include name, address, demographic, risk factor and treatment information for the purposes of surveillance, prevention and disease control activities;

(F) Records of venereal disease cases, including address data for each case, provided annually within thirty days of finalizing the annual data set;

(G) Records of nonfatal assault-related gunshot and stabbing injuries, reported annually;

(H) Data from the Massachusetts behavioral risk factor surveillance system, provided within two months of finalizing data set;

(I) Data from the Massachusetts cancer registry, provided annually;

(J) Data regarding participants in the women, infants, and children program, provided annually;

(K) Data from the pregnancy risk assessment and monitoring system, provided annually;

(L) For the purposes of program evaluation of substance abuse prevention and treatment activities within the city, substance abuse treatment admissions data, provided once every six months;

(M) Data of hospital discharges, provided annually;

(N) Data of hospital observational cases, provided annually; and

(O) Data of hospital emergency room visits, provided annually.