Health care providers: patient access: immigration enforcement.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on enforcement mechanisms or financial implications of posting notices.

Health Care Providers: Patient Access and Immigration Enforcement

This law requires health care providers to inform staff on how to respond to requests from immigration enforcement agencies and post notices about access rules for nonpublic areas.

What This Bill Does

• Requires health care providers to instruct their workers on how to handle requests related to immigration enforcement, including notifying family members or support persons of a person's location in custody.
• Changes the requirement for health care providers to establish procedures for monitoring and documenting visitors without the phrase 'to the extent possible'.
• Requires health care providers to post notices at entrances stating that no one can enter nonpublic areas for immigration enforcement unless required by law or with a valid warrant or court order.

Who It Names or Affects

• Health care providers and their staff
• People in custody of immigration enforcement who want to notify family members about their location

Terms To Know

Nonpublic areas

Areas within a health care facility where patients receive treatment, discuss private medical information, or seek privacy.

Health care provider entity

A hospital, clinic, or other organization that provides medical services to patients.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if a health care provider fails to follow these new requirements.
• It is unclear how the changes will affect patient privacy and safety in practice.
• The bill requires local agencies to post notices, but it does not say who pays for making or posting them.

Official Summary Text

SB 1323, as amended, Rubio.
Health care providers: patient access: immigration enforcement.
Existing law requires a health care provider entity, as defined, to designate areas where a patient is receiving treatment or care, or where a patient is discussing protected health information, as nonpublic, in order to enhance privacy available to facility users and promote a safe environment conducive to the facility’s mission and patient care. Unless required by state or federal law, existing law prohibits a health care provider entity and its personnel from allowing any person access to the nonpublic areas of the facility for immigration enforcement purposes, unless that person has a valid judicial warrant or court order that specifically grants access to the nonpublic areas of the facility.
Existing law requires a health care provider entity to inform staff and relevant volunteers on how to respond to requests relating to immigration
enforcement that grants access to health care provider entity sites or to patients.
This bill would also require a health care provider entity to inform staff and relevant volunteers on how to respond to requests by a person who is in lawful custody by immigration enforcement to notify a family member or designated support person about their current location.
Existing law requires a health care provider entity, to the extent possible, to establish or amend procedures for monitoring, documenting, and receiving visitors to health care provider entities consistent with the above-described and related provisions. Under existing law, a health care provider entity is encouraged to post a “notice to authorities” at facility
entrances.
entrances that states that no
person will be permitted to access nonpublic areas of a facility for immigration enforcement purposes unless required by state or federal law or pursuant to a valid physical judicial warrant or court order.
This bill would instead require the health care provider entity to establish or amend those procedures, without the qualification that the process be to the extent possible. The bill would also require, instead of encouraging, the entity to post the above-described notice.
To the extent that the bill would create new duties for health care provider entities administered by a county, city, or other local public jurisdiction, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions
establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF