§ 2168. Statewide immunization registry. 1. The department is hereby
directed to establish a statewide automated and electronic immunization
registry that will serve, and shall be administered consistent with, the
following public health purposes:
(a) collect reports of immunizations and thus reduce the incidence of
illness, disability and death due to vaccine preventable diseases;
(b) establish the public health infrastructure necessary to obtain,
collect, preserve, and disclose information relating to vaccine
preventable disease as it may promote the health and well-being of all
children in this state;
(c) make available to an individual, or parents, guardians, or other
person in a custodial relation to a child or, to local health districts,
local social services districts responsible for the care and custody of
children, health care providers and their designees, schools, and third
party payers the immunization status of children; and
(d) appropriately protecting the confidentiality of individual
identifying information and the privacy of persons included in the
registry and their families.
2. For the purposes of this section:
(a) The term "authorized user" shall mean any person or entity
authorized to provide information to or to receive information from the
immunization registry and shall include health care providers and their
designees, as defined in paragraph (d) of this subdivision, schools as
defined in paragraph a of subdivision one of section twenty-one hundred
sixty-four of this title, health maintenance organizations certified
under article forty-four of this chapter or article forty-three of the
insurance law, local health districts as defined by paragraph (c) of
subdivision one of section two of this chapter, and local social
services districts and the office of children and family services with
regard to children in their legal custody. An authorized user may be
located outside New York state. An entity other than a local health
district shall be an authorized user only with respect to a person
seeking or receiving a health care service from the health care
provider, a person enrolled or seeking to be enrolled in the school, a
person insured by the health maintenance organization, or a person in
the custody of the local social services district or the office of
children and family services, as the case may be.
(b) The term "immunization registry" shall mean a
statewide-computerized database maintained by the department capable of
collecting, storing, and disclosing the electronic and paper records of
vaccinations received by persons under nineteen years of age.
(c) The term "citywide immunization registry" shall mean the
computerized database maintained by the city of New York department of
health and mental hygiene capable of collecting, storing, and disclosing
the electronic and paper records of vaccinations received by persons
under nineteen years of age. For the purposes of this section the term
New York city department of health and mental hygiene shall mean such
agency or any successor agency responsible for the citywide immunization
registry.
(d) The term "health care provider" shall mean any person authorized
by law to order or administer an immunization or any health care
facility licensed under article twenty-eight of this chapter or any
certified home health agency established under section thirty-six
hundred six of this chapter; with respect to a person seeking or
receiving a health care service from the health care provider.
(e) For purposes of this section a school is a public health
authority, as defined in section 164.501 of part 45 of the federal code
of rules, responsible for screening the immunization status of each
child pursuant to section twenty-one hundred sixty-four of this article.
3. (a) Any health care provider who administers any vaccine to a
person under nineteen years of age; and immunizations received by a
person under nineteen years of age in the past if not already reported,
shall report all such immunizations to the department in a format
prescribed by the commissioner within fourteen days of administration.
Health care providers administering immunizations to persons under
nineteen years of age in the city of New York shall report, in a format
prescribed by the city of New York commissioner of health and mental
hygiene, all such immunizations to the citywide immunization registry.
The commissioner, and for the city of New York the commissioner of
health and mental hygiene, shall have the discretion to accept for
inclusion in the registry information regarding immunizations
administered to individuals nineteen years of age or older with the
express written consent of the vaccine.
(b) The immunization registry shall provide a method for health care
providers to determine when the registrant is due or late for a
recommended immunization and shall serve as a means for authorized users
to receive prompt and accurate information, as reported to the registry,
about the vaccines that the registrant has received.
4. (a) All information maintained by the department, or in the case of
the citywide immunization registry, the city of New York under the
provisions of this section shall be confidential except as necessary to
carry out the provisions of this section and shall not be released for
any other purpose.
(b) The department and for the city of New York the department of
health and mental hygiene may also disclose or provide such information
to an authorized user when (i) such person or agency provides sufficient
identifying information satisfactory to the department to identify such
registrant and (ii) such disclosure or provision of information is in
the best interests of the registrant or his or her family, or will
contribute to the protection of the public health.
(c) Any data collected by the department may be included in the
immunization registry if collection, storage and access of such data is
otherwise authorized. Such data may be disclosed to the immunization
registry only if provided for in statute and regulation, and shall be
subject to any provisions in such statute or regulation limiting the use
or redisclosure of the data. Nothing contained in this paragraph shall
permit inclusion of data in the immunization registry if that data could
not otherwise be accessed or disclosed in the absence of the registry.
For the city of New York the commissioner of health and mental hygiene
may include data collected in the citywide registry as provided in this
paragraph.
(d) A person, institution or agency to whom such immunization registry
information is furnished or to whom, access to records or information
has been given, shall not divulge any part thereof so as to disclose the
identity of such person to whom such information or record relates,
except insofar as such disclosure is necessary for the best interests of
the person or other persons, consistent with the purposes of this
section.
5. (a) All health care providers and their designees, except for
providers reporting to the citywide immunization registry, shall submit
to the commissioner information about any vaccinee under nineteen years
of age and about each vaccination given after January first, two
thousand eight. The information provided to the registry or the citywide
immunization registry shall include the national immunization program
data elements and other elements required by the commissioner. For the
city of New York the commissioner of health and mental hygiene may
require additional elements with prior notice to the commissioner of any
changes.
(b) In addition to the immunization administration information
required by this section, the operation of any immunization registry
established under chapter five hundred twenty-one of the laws of
nineteen hundred ninety-four, section 11.04 of title twenty-four of
volume eight of the compilation of the rules of the city of New York and
administered by a local health district collecting information from
health care providers about vaccinations previously administered to a
vaccinee prior to the effective date of this section shall provide the
commissioner access to such information.
(c) All health care providers shall provide the department or, as
appropriate, the city of New York with additional or clarifying
information upon request reasonably related to the purposes of this
section.
(d) Notwithstanding the above, submission of incomplete information
shall not prohibit entry of incomplete but viable data into the registry
database.
(e) The commissioner of the department of health and mental hygiene
for the city of New York shall implement the requirements of this
subdivision.
(f) The immunization status of children exempt from immunizations
pursuant to subdivision eight and a parent claiming exemption pursuant
to subdivision nine of section twenty-one hundred sixty-four of this
title shall be reported by the health care provider.
6. In the city of New York, the commissioner of the department of
health and mental hygiene of the city of New York may maintain its
existing registry consistent with the requirements of this section and
shall provide information to the commissioner and to authorized users.
7. Each parent or legal guardian of a newborn infant or a child newly
enrolled in the registry shall receive information, developed by the
department, describing the registry enrollment process and how to review
and correct information and obtain a copy of the child's immunization
record. The city of New York will be responsible for providing
information about the processes for enrollment and access to the
citywide immunization registry by a parent or legal guardian of a
newborn infant or newly enrolled child residing in the city of New York.
8. Access and use of identifiable registrant information shall be
limited to authorized users consistent with this subdivision and the
purposes of this section. (a) The commissioner shall provide a method by
which authorized users apply for access to the registry. For the city of
New York, the commissioner of health and mental hygiene shall provide a
method by which authorized users apply for access to the registry.
(b) (i) The commissioner may use the immunization registry for
purposes of outreach, quality improvement and vaccine accountability,
research, epidemiological studies and disease control; (ii) the
commissioner of health and mental hygiene for the city of New York may
use the immunization registry for purposes of outreach, quality
improvement and vaccine accountability, research, epidemiological
studies and disease control; (iii) local health departments shall have
access to the immunization registry for purposes of outreach, quality
improvement and vaccine accountability, epidemiological studies and
disease control within their county; and
(c) health care providers and their designees shall have access to the
immunization registry only for purposes of submission of information
about vaccinations received by a specific registrant, determination of
the immunization status of a specific registrant, review of practice
coverage, generation of reminder notices, quality improvement and
vaccine accountability and printing a copy of the immunization record
for the registrant's medical record, for the registrant's parent or
guardian, or other person in parental or custodial relation to a child,
or for a registrant upon reaching eighteen years of age.
(d) The following authorized users shall have access to the
immunization registry and the citywide immunization registry for the
purposes stated in this paragraph: (i) schools for verifying eligibility
for admission; (ii) health maintenance organizations for performing
quality assurance, accountability and outreach, relating to enrollees
covered by the health maintenance organization; (iii) commissioners of
local social services districts with regard to a child in his/her legal
custody; and (iv) the commissioner of the office of children and family
services with regard to children in their legal custody, and for quality
assurance and accountability of commissioners of local social services
districts, care and treatment of children in the custody of
commissioners of local social services districts.
9. The commissioner may judge the legitimacy of any request for
immunization registry information and may refuse access to the
immunization registry based on the authenticity of the request,
credibility of the authorized user or other reasons as provided for in
regulation. For the city of New York the commissioner of health and
mental hygiene may judge the legitimacy of requests for access to the
citywide immunization registry and refuse access to the immunization
registry based on the authenticity of the request, credibility of the
authorized user or other reasons as provided for in regulation.
10. The person to whom any immunization record relates, or his or her
parent, or guardian, or other person in parental or custodial relation
to such person may request a copy of an immunization record from the
registrant's healthcare provider, the immunization registry or the
citywide immunization registry according to procedures established by
the commissioner or, in the case of the citywide immunization registry,
by the city of New York commissioner of the department of health and
mental hygiene.
11. The commissioner may provide registrant specific immunization
records to other state registries pursuant to a written agreement
requiring that the foreign registry conform to national standards for
maintaining the integrity of the data and will not be used for purposes
inconsistent with the provisions of this section.
12. Information that would be provided upon the enrollment in the
registry of a child being vaccinated, from birth records of all infants
born in New York state on or after January first, two thousand four
shall be entered into the immunization registry, except in the city of
New York, where birth record information shall be entered into the
citywide immunization registry.
13. The commissioner shall promulgate regulations as necessary to
effectuate the provisions of this section. Such regulations shall
include provision for orderly implementation and operation of the
registry, including the method by which each category of authorized user
may access the registry. Access standards shall include at a minimum a
method for assigning and authenticating each user identification and
password assigned.
14. No authorized user shall be subjected to civil or criminal
liability, or be deemed to have engaged in unprofessional conduct for
reporting to, receiving from, or disclosing information relating to the
registry when made reasonably and in good faith and in accordance with
the provisions of this section or any regulation adopted thereto.