Public Health Committee
AN ACT CONCERNING PATIENT ACCESS AND CONTROL OVER MEDICAL TEST RESULTS
SUMMARY: This act (1) requires clinical laboratories to provide patient test results to additional health care providers in certain situations and (2) allows a patient to directly receive test results when the patient is undergoing repeated testing. The Department of Public Health (DPH) must adopt regulations to implement the act.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2011
ACCESS TO MEDICAL TEST RESULTS
The law requires a health care provider, except in limited circumstances (such as when a provider reasonably determines that the information might be detrimental to the patient), to supply a patient, upon request, complete and current information the provider has about the patient's diagnosis, treatment, or prognosis. The provider must also notify a patient of any test results in his or her possession or requested by the provider for purposes of diagnosis, treatment, or prognosis. The law generally does not allow direct reporting to patients of laboratory test results. But they may be reported to patients upon the written request of the provider who ordered the testing (Conn. Agencies Regs. § 19a-36-D32).
Test Results to Additional Providers
Under the act, if a patient or a provider who orders medical tests for the patient so requests, a clinical laboratory must supply the test results to any other provider who is seeing the patient for treatment, diagnosis, or prognosis purposes. The act defines “clinical laboratory” as any facility or other area used for microbiological, serological, chemical, hematological, immunohematological, biophysical, cytological, pathological, or other examinations of human body fluids, secretions, excretions, or excised or exfoliated tissues, for the purpose of providing information for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of any human disease or impairment, assessment of human health, or for the presence of drugs, poisons, or other toxicological substances. For the purposes of the act, a clinical laboratory does not include any state laboratory established by DPH.
Direct Reporting to Patient
Under the act, a provider can issue a single authorization allowing a clinical laboratory or other entity performing medical testing to give directly to the patient the test results in situations where the provider asks the patient to submit to repeated testing at regular intervals over a specified time period. Such testing must be for determining a diagnosis, prognosis, or recommended treatment course.
BACKGROUND
Related Act
The language of this act is identical to that in PA 11-242 (§ 79).
OLR Tracking: JK: JO: PF: ro