CHAPTER 685
An Act to require the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to convene a work group to develop a plan for sharing of health information between community services boards and local and regional jails.
[S 1644]
Approved March 21, 2019
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. That the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services shall convene a work group to include representatives of the Office of the Attorney General, community services boards, local and regional jails, and such other stakeholders as it deems necessary to study the issue of and develop a plan for sharing of protected health information of individuals with mental health treatment needs who have been confined to a local or regional jail in the Commonwealth and who have previously received mental health treatment from a community services board or behavioral health authority in the Commonwealth. Such plan shall include a mechanism for (i) determining if an individual confined in a local or regional jail has previously received treatment from a community services board or behavioral health authority in the Commonwealth and (ii) in cases in which such person has received such treatment, transferring protected health information related to such treatment from the identified community services board to the sheriff or superintendent of the local or regional jail in which the person is confined. The Department shall report by October 1, 2019, to the Governor and the General Assembly on (a) development of the plan, (b) the content of the plan, and (c) the steps necessary to implement the plan, including any statutory or regulatory changes and any appropriations.