Section 141-C:20-f Immunization Registry.
I. The department shall establish and maintain a state immunization registry. The registry shall be a single repository of accurate, complete and current immunization records to aid, coordinate, and promote effective and cost-efficient disease prevention and control efforts.
II. No patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, shall be required to participate in the immunization registry.
III. Physicians, nurses, and other health care providers may report an immunization to the immunization registry unless the patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, refuses to allow reporting of this information.
IV. Access to the information in the registry shall be limited to primary care physicians, nurses, other appropriate health care providers as determined by the commissioner, schools, child care agencies, and government health agencies or researchers demonstrating a legitimate need for such information as determined by the commissioner.
V. The information contained in the registry shall be used for the following purposes:
(a) To ensure that registrants receive all recommended immunizations in a timely manner by providing access to the registrant's immunization record.
(b) To improve immunization rates by facilitating notice to registrants of overdue or upcoming immunizations.
(c) To control communicable diseases by assisting in the identification of individuals who require immediate immunization in the event of a disease outbreak.
VI. The commissioner shall adopt rules under RSA 541-A concerning the following:
(a) The establishment and maintenance of the immunization registry.
(b) The methods for submitting and content of reports of immunizations.
(c) Procedures for the patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, to decline to participate in the registry.
(d) Procedures for the registrant, or the registrant's parent or guardian if the registrant is a minor, to review and correct information contained in the registry.
(e) Procedures for the registrant, or the registrant's parent or guardian if the registrant is a minor, to withdraw consent for participation at any time and to remove information from the registry.
(f) Limits on and methods of access to the registry by those authorized to gain access under paragraph IV of this section.
(g) Procedures for managed care organizations to obtain summary statistics of immunization information on managed care organization members from the immunization registry.
VII. Any person reporting, receiving, or disclosing information to or from the immunization registry as authorized by this section or by any rule adopted pursuant to this section shall not be liable for civil damages of any kind connected with such submission or disclosure of immunization information.
VIII. Nothing in this section is intended to affect the obligations of persons under RSA 141-C:20-a to have their children properly immunized.
IX. Nothing in this section shall preclude the right of the patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, to claim exemption from immunization as defined in RSA 141-C:20-c; nor shall anything in this section require such patient to be included in the registry if the patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is a minor, objects thereto on any grounds, including but not limited to, that such registry conflicts with the religious beliefs of the patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is a minor.
X. No health care provider shall discriminate in any way against a person solely because that person elects not to participate in the immunization registry.
Source. 1998, 183:3, eff. Aug. 14, 1998.