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Senate concurs with House changes to bill protecting legally protected health care activity
Summary
The Vermont Senate concurred with the House's proposal of amendment to S.28, a bill on legally protected health care activity, after committee reviews and edits that added interstate recognition, HIPAA clarifications and protections for pharmacists.
The Vermont Senate on the floor concurred with the House proposal of amendment to S.28, legislation that protects legally protected health care activity in the state.
The bill was reported to the chamber by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, which outlined changes made by the House including language invoking the Full Faith and Credit principle to respect similar laws of other states, clarifications about when health information protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) may be disclosed, and explicit protections for pharmacists who remove or redact a prescribing practitioner's name on medication containers at the practitioner's request. Senator from Chittenden asked the Senate to concur with the House amendments.
The committee also noted additions aimed at protecting residents from outside investigations into legally protected health care activity, while preserving law enforcement's ability to comply with valid court orders or warrants. The Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed sections of the bill that raise judicial issues, including sections 1, 5, 6 and 13, and offered no proposals for change at that time.
Senator from Windham said the judiciary had reviewed the interstate and immunity questions and reported no proposals for amendment.
After the floor discussion the Senate voted to concur with the House proposal of amendment. The clerk announced "The ayes have it and the Senate has concurred with the House proposal of amendment on S.28." No roll-call tally was entered on the floor record provided.
The changes reported to the Senate extend the bill's privacy and immunity protections and align several provisions with federal privacy law. The text clarified references to telemedicine patient interviews, struck language repeatedly using the phrase "any combination of training," and replaced gendered language such as "woman" with the gender-neutral term "patient" in certain provisions. The amendments also add a consultation requirement for development of a telemedicine questionnaire with clinically appropriate expertise.
The bill passed concurrence and will proceed as amended to the next stage required under Senate rules.
