Amendment ID: S3072-12
Amendment 12
Protecting the Rights of Patients in ICE Detention
Ms. Miranda, Ms. Edwards, Ms. Rausch, Ms. Kennedy, Messrs. Eldridge and Keenan, Ms. Howard, Ms. Jehlen and Messrs. Gómez, Mark and Driscoll move that the proposed new text be amended in section 6 by inserting after the word “arrest” the following:-
“Detained patient,” any patient or detainee at a covered health care provider in the custody of a civil law enforcement agency, including but not limited to patients who have been brought to a covered health care provider in an effort to provide or assist in providing medical care to the patient or detainee;"
and in Section 6, by inserting after subsection (c), the following:-
(d) A covered health care provider shall ensure confidential, unmonitored attorney-client telephone communications for detained patients. This shall be available to the detained patient immediately upon intake. In addition to outbound calling options, a covered health care provider shall provide a verified immigration-counsel line that permits counsel of record in an immigration proceeding to complete no less than 1 confidential inbound call per day with the detained patient, or, if direct inbound calling is technologically infeasible, a covered health care provider shall provide a system for said counsel to request a confidential callback that occurs within 12 hours of the request.
(e) A covered health care provider shall, immediately upon intake, provide each detained patient the opportunity to place at minimum 3 free telephone calls to persons of the patient’s choosing for the purpose of notifying those persons of the patient’s location and arranging care or other urgent personal matters; provided, however, that a covered health care provider may delay said calls only for documented, case-specific security or medical reasons and shall provide the call as soon as practicable.
(f) Detained patients shall be provided an opportunity, at the earliest reasonable moment, to sign a HIPAA authorization form in order to permit the disclosure of their health care information by the covered health care provider to legal representative, parents, guardians, relatives, or other designees of the patient about the patient's health status or hospital admission and discharge. Reasonable efforts shall be made to make this HIPAA authorization form available in the primary language of both the patient and their designee.
(g) The department of public health and the department of mental health, in consultation with the attorney general, shall produce and distribute a document to all covered health care providers that contains, at minimum, the following information:
(i) notice of the right to legal counsel;
(ii) instructions for contacting legal services;
(iii) notice of the right to sign a HIPAA authorization form in order to permit the disclosure of their health care information by the covered health care provider to legal representative, parents, guardians, relatives, or other designees of the patient;
(iv) notice of the right to decline interviews by law enforcement or consular officials unless legal counsel is present; and
(v) notice of the covered health care provider’s procedures for confidential legal communications and grievance review.
A covered health care provider shall provide said document notifying the detained patient of the above to a detained patient upon intake and shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that this document is provided in or translated into the detained patient’s primary language or language of choice, or, if the detained patient is unable to read the document, the document shall be read aloud to the detained patient in their primary language or language of choice.
(h) Covered health care providers shall implement procedures to ensure that any protected health information requested by a law enforcement agent is released only in strict accordance with all state, federal, or any other applicable law, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended, and its implementing regulations, including, but not limited to, 45 CFR Part 160.
(i) In the case of a law enforcement agent seeking information for the purpose of immigration enforcement, to the extent not in conflict with 45 CFR 164.512(e) and (f), a procedure shall be implemented to release information only when in strict compliance with a judicial warrant or judicial order.
(i) Covered health care providers shall implement procedures to ensure annual and, as deemed reasonably necessary by the hospital, episodic training on the provisions set forth in this Section. This training shall be made mandatory for:
(i) all hospital clinical health care staff, including, but not limited to, intake staff, emergency room staff, and independent contractors who provide clinical services;
(ii) security personnel;
(iii) administrative volunteers.