General acute care hospitals: patient directories.

Assembly Member Carrillo's patient privacy legislation would establish new requirements for California's general acute care hospitals regarding the disclosure of patient information in facility directories. The measure codifies specific procedures for hospitals to inform patients about their rights to restrict or prohibit the sharing of their protected health information.

Under the proposed requirements, hospitals must notify patients about directory information controls at admission or at the earliest possible time in emergency situations. Hospitals can fulfill this obligation through either a dedicated form with checkboxes for patients to authorize or restrict information sharing, or through verbal notification from hospital personnel. The notification must be available in the five most common non-English languages within each facility's service area.

The measure builds upon existing federal HIPAA provisions that permit healthcare facilities to maintain patient directories and share basic information with visitors who ask for patients by name. While current California law allows hospitals to release certain patient details unless specifically restricted in writing, this proposal creates an affirmative duty for hospitals to proactively inform patients of their privacy options. Non-compliance would constitute a criminal offense under state law, though the measure specifies that local agencies would not receive state reimbursement for any associated costs.