SB 548 - This act authorizes the Department of Social Services to select and engage non-profit organizations in the Kansas City and St. Louis Metropolitan areas who have governance boards that include representatives from employer and provider groups to deploy and manage a regional health bank. Health banks are defined as a legal arrangement under the administration of a health bank operator where an individual has consented to have his or her electronic health record maintained and stored by the health bank. The health bank shall enable a secure, web-based health information infrastructure for the sharing of electronic health information among health care facilities, health care professionals, public and private payers, and patients. The health bank shall comply with all state and federal privacy requirements and link all components of the health care delivery system through secure and appropriate exchanges of health information for the purpose of enhancing health care quality, patient safety, communication of patient information, chronic condition management capabilities, patient and provider satisfaction, clinical and administrative cost reductions, and public health emergency preparedness. The individual shall be able to create a secure, electronic health record bank account so that he or she may be able to consolidate his or her respective health information collected during the course of the individual's lifetime.
The state shall sponsor the following accounts in an opt-out fashion for the regional health banks:
(1) MO HealthNet recipients;
(2) State health care for uninsured children recipients;
(3) Missouri residents receiving Medicare benefits;
(4) Foster care children; and
(5) State employees.
Each non-profit organization as selected by the department to be a state-designated entity shall be authorized to submit and request funds in fiscal year 2010 to enable the creation of the health bank from the federal secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services as defined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Such organizations shall also be required to propose what state appropriations should be requested in years fiscal years 2011, 2012, and 2013 to qualify for the federal matching funds.
No personal health information of a patient which can be identified as specific to such patient shall be disclosed to any employer, public or private payor, or employee or agent of a state department or agency without the written consent of the patient and health care provider. However, such information may be disclosed to a health insurer, employer, state employee or agent in connection with the performance of such employee's official duties.
No health care provider shall be required to redact information when disclosing personal health information under this act.
ADRIANE CROUSE