House Bill 6, sponsored by State Representative Jimmy Stewart (R–Athens), passed the Ohio House of Representatives on June 25, 2003, by a vote of 98-1. House Bill 6 will be referred to a Committee in the Ohio Senate.
The bill modifies the powers and duties of the director of the Ohio Department of Health, the Ohio Department of Health, the Public Health Council and local boards of health relative to the Director's general powers, agreements to sell services or exchange information, investigations, quarantine and isolation, vaccinations and immunizations, the public health laboratory, enforcement of rules and orders and other public health matters; requires the Public Health Council to adopt rules related to determining the capacity of trauma centers to respond to disasters, mass casualties and bioterrorism; makes information that is "protected health information" confidential and not subject to release except under specified conditions; provides that during an investigation that the director is conducting and that is not yet complete information is confidential and cannot be released except under specified conditions; permits the release of information in summary, statistical and aggregate form if that information does not identify a person and specifies that such information is a public record; exempts specified records from the Public Records Law; and expands requirements under which specified health care entities must report information to the Department, establishes a criminal penalty for failure to comply with certain of those requirements and authorizes the director to adopt fine structures by rule and impose fines.
Senate Bill 6, sponsored by State Senator Steve Stivers (R–Columbus), passed the Ohio Senate on March 12, 2003, by a vote of 33-0. Senate Bill 6 has been referred to the House Homeland Security, Engineering and Architectural Design Committee; however, no hearings have been held to date. The Senate bill mirrors HB 6 with some changes.