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Missouri bill would clarify access to fire and emergency medical incident records
Summary
A bill heard in the Missouri House committee would add emergency responders to the list of entities whose incident reports may be obtained under state public-records law, closing a gap because fire departments are not billing entities covered by HIPAA.
Representative Tim Taylor, sponsor of House Bill 457, told the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education that the bill aims to close a gap between state public-records law and federal HIPAA protections for medical records.
"HIPAA covers those individuals or entities that do billing. So your medical records are covered and protected. But because the fire departments are not billing entities, information that, say, me as an officer on the scene collects about your medical information ... is available right now," Representative Tim Taylor said, explaining why he seeks to change the statute.
The bill would add to the statutory list of records that must be provided on written request "records containing a patient's health history and treatment created by an emergency care provider" and would add telecommunicators and other first responders as defined in statute so their reports are treated the same for disclosure purposes. The sponsor said the furnishing of the records may be conditioned on a fee equal to the fee allowed for other health-care records and that personally identifying medical information would be redacted when only the general nature of the incident is released.
Bridal Schafer of the City of Columbia Fire Department testified in favor, saying the current situation is a longstanding loophole. "This has been a loophole for many years," Schafer said, and added that fixing it would prevent sensitive personal information gathered during 9-1-1 responses from being released without the subject's knowledge.
A representative of the Fire Service Alliance and Megan Howerton of the Missouri Ambulance Association also testified in support. Committee members offered no questions beyond brief thanks and the hearing concluded with no formal action taken on HB 457 at this meeting.
The committee hearing record contained questions about how records are used and disclosed under the current practice; witnesses said departments had been directed by counsel to release incident reports in some public-records requests, which the bill would change by explicitly including emergency care providers in the list of records covered.
No motion or vote on the bill was recorded during the session.
