To find & verify latest version of law: Go to http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi Click "Laws of New York" Scroll down/look for "PBH - Public Health" and click Scroll down/look for "Title 6 - (2160 - 2168) POLIOMYELITIS AND OTHER DISEASES" and click. -------------------------------------- § 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.