Medical Record Amendments

9
26B-2-201
26B-2-244
58-13-2.6
0
Medical Record Amendments
2026 GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Chief Sponsor: Karianne Lisonbee
Senate Sponsor: Brady Brammer
LONG TITLE
General Description:
This bill addresses medical records.
Highlighted Provisions:
This bill:
distinguishes between an elective abortion and a medically indicated abortion;
allows a patient to request that the patient's medical record reflect that a prior abortion
was not an elective abortion;
requires a health care provider to update a patient's medical record if requested; and
makes technical and conforming changes.
Money Appropriated in this Bill:
None
Other Special Clauses:
None
Utah Code Sections Affected:
AMENDS:
26B-2-201
Effective
05/06/26
, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2024, Chapters 113,
240
58-13-2.6
Effective
05/06/26
Repealed
07/01/26
, as last amended by Laws of Utah
2023, Chapter 328
ENACTS:
26B-2-244
Effective
05/06/26
, Utah Code Annotated 1953
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section
26B-2-201
is amended to read:
26B-2-201
Effective
05/06/26
. Definitions.
As used in this part:
(1)
"Abortion clinic" means a type I abortion clinic or a type II abortion clinic.
(2)
"Activities of daily living" means essential activities including:
(a)
dressing;
(b)
eating;
(c)
grooming;
(d)
bathing;
(e)
toileting;
(f)
ambulation;
(g)
transferring; and
(h)
self-administration of medication.
(3)
"Ambulatory surgical facility" means a freestanding facility, which provides surgical
services to patients not requiring hospitalization.
(4)
"Assistance with activities of daily living" means providing of or arranging for the
provision of assistance with activities of daily living.
(5)
(a)
"Assisted living facility" means:
(i)
a type I assisted living facility, which is a residential facility that provides
assistance with activities of daily living and social care to two or more residents
who:
(A)
require protected living arrangements; and
(B)
are capable of achieving mobility sufficient to exit the facility without the
assistance of another person; and
(ii)
a type II assisted living facility, which is a residential facility with a home-like
setting that provides an array of coordinated supportive personal and health care
services available 24 hours per day to residents who have been assessed under
department rule to need any of these services.
(b)
Each resident in a type I or type II assisted living facility shall have a service plan
based on the assessment, which may include:
(i)
specified services of intermittent nursing care;
(ii)
administration of medication; and
(iii)
support services promoting residents' independence and self-sufficiency.
(6)
"Birthing center" means a facility that:
(a)
receives maternal clients and provides care during pregnancy, delivery, and
immediately after delivery; and
(b)
(i)
is freestanding; or
(ii)
is not freestanding, but meets the requirements for an alongside midwifery unit
described in Subsection
26B-2-228(7)
.
(7)
"Committee" means the Health Facility Committee created in Section
26B-1-204
.
(8)
"Consumer" means any person not primarily engaged in the provision of health care to
individuals or in the administration of facilities or institutions in which such care is
provided and who does not hold a fiduciary position, or have a fiduciary interest in any
entity involved in the provision of health care, and does not receive, either directly or
through
his
the person's
spouse, more than 1/10 of
his
the person's
gross income from
any entity or activity relating to health care.
(9)
"Elective abortion" means an abortion that is not a medically indicated abortion.
(9)
(10)
"End stage renal disease facility" means a facility which furnishes staff-assisted
kidney dialysis services, self-dialysis services, or home-dialysis services on an
outpatient basis.
(10)
(11)
"Freestanding" means existing independently or physically separated from
another health care facility by fire walls and doors and administrated by separate staff
with separate records.
(11)
(12)
"General acute hospital" means a facility which provides diagnostic, therapeutic,
and rehabilitative services to both inpatients and outpatients by or under the supervision
of physicians.
(12)
(13)
"Governmental unit" means the state, or any county, municipality, or other
political subdivision or any department, division, board, or agency of the state, a county,
municipality, or other political subdivision.
(13)
(14)
(a)
"Health care facility" means general acute hospitals, specialty hospitals,
home health agencies, hospices, nursing care facilities, residential-assisted living
facilities, birthing centers, ambulatory surgical facilities, small health care facilities,
abortion clinics, facilities owned or operated by health maintenance organizations,
end stage renal disease facilities, and any other health care facility which the
committee designates by rule.
(b)
"Health care facility" does not include the offices of private physicians or dentists,
whether for individual or group practice, except that it does include an abortion clinic.
(14)
(15)
"Health maintenance organization" means an organization, organized under the
laws of any state which:
(a)
is a qualified health maintenance organization under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300e-9; or
(b)
(i)
provides or otherwise makes available to enrolled participants at least the
following basic health care services: usual physician services, hospitalization,
laboratory, x-ray, emergency, and preventive services and out-of-area coverage;
(ii)
is compensated, except for copayments, for the provision of the basic health
services listed in Subsection
(14)(b)(i)
(15)(b)(i)
to enrolled participants by a
payment which is paid on a periodic basis without regard to the date the health
services are provided and which is fixed without regard to the frequency, extent,
or kind of health services actually provided;
(iii)
provides physicians' services primarily directly through physicians who are
either employees or partners of such organizations, or through arrangements with
individual physicians or one or more groups of physicians organized on a group
practice or individual practice basis; and
(iv)
provides physician assistant services.
(15)
(16)
(a)
"Home health agency" means an agency, organization, or facility or a
subdivision of an agency, organization, or facility which employs two or more direct
care staff persons who provide licensed nursing services, therapeutic services of
physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, medical social services, or
home health aide services on a visiting basis.
(b)
"Home health agency" does not mean an individual who provides services under the
authority of a private license.
(16)
(17)
"Hospice" means a program of care for the terminally ill and their families which
occurs in a home or in a health care facility and which provides medical, palliative,
psychological, spiritual, and supportive care and treatment.
(18)
"Medically indicated abortion" means an abortion:
(a)
to remove a deceased fetus;
(b)
to remove an ectopic pregnancy;
(c)
that is necessary to avert the death of the woman; or
(d)
that is necessary to avert a serious physical risk of substantial impairment of a major
bodily function of a woman.
(17)
(19)
"Nursing care facility" means a health care facility, other than a general acute or
specialty hospital, constructed, licensed, and operated to provide patient living
accommodations, 24-hour staff availability, and at least two of the following patient
services:
(a)
a selection of patient care services, under the direction and supervision of a registered
nurse, ranging from continuous medical, skilled nursing, psychological, or other
professional therapies to intermittent health-related or paraprofessional personal care
services;
(b)
a structured, supportive social living environment based on a professionally designed
and supervised treatment plan, oriented to the individual's habilitation or
rehabilitation needs; or
(c)
a supervised living environment that provides support, training, or assistance with
individual activities of daily living.
(18)
(20)
"Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company,
association, or joint stock association, and the legal successor thereof.
(19)
(21)
"Resident" means
a person
an individual
21 years old or older who:
(a)
as a result of physical or mental limitations or age requires or requests services
provided in an assisted living facility; and
(b)
does not require intensive medical or nursing services as provided in a hospital or
nursing care facility.
(20)
(22)
"Small health care facility" means a four to 16 bed facility that provides licensed
health care programs and services to residents.
(21)
(23)
"Specialty hospital" means a facility which provides specialized diagnostic,
therapeutic, or rehabilitative services in the recognized specialty or specialties for which
the hospital is licensed.
(22)
(24)
"Substantial compliance" means in a department survey of a licensee, the
department determines there is an absence of deficiencies which would harm the
physical health, mental health, safety, or welfare of patients or residents of a licensee.
(23)
(25)
"Type I abortion clinic" means a facility, including a physician's office, but not
including a general acute or specialty hospital, that:
(a)
performs abortions, as defined in Section
76-7-301
, during the first trimester of
pregnancy; and
(b)
does not perform abortions, as defined in Section
76-7-301
, after the first trimester of
pregnancy.
(24)
(26)
"Type II abortion clinic" means a facility, including a physician's office, but not
including a general acute or specialty hospital, that:
(a)
performs abortions, as defined in Section
76-7-301
, after the first trimester of
pregnancy; or
(b)
performs abortions, as defined in Section
76-7-301
, during the first trimester of
pregnancy and after the first trimester of pregnancy.
Section 2. Section
26B-2-244
is enacted to read:
26B-2-244
Effective
05/06/26
. Medical records.
(1)
An individual may request that a health care provider include in the individual's medical
record and health history that an abortion was not an elective abortion if the individual
experienced:
(a)
a miscarriage;
(b)
an abortion of a fetus that had a defect that is uniformly diagnosable and uniformly
lethal;
(c)
an abortion when the individual was pregnant as a result of rape or incest; or
(d)
a medically indicated abortion.
(2)
A health care provider that receives a request described in Subsection
(1)
shall include a
note in the individual's medical record.
Section 3. Section
58-13-2.6
is amended to read:
58-13-2.6
Effective
05/06/26
Repealed
07/01/26
. Emergency care rendered by
a person or health care facility.
(1)
For purposes of this section:
(a)
"Emergency" means an unexpected occurrence involving injury, the threat of injury,
or illness to a person or the public due to:
(i)
a natural disaster;
(ii)
bioterrorism;
(iii)
an act of terrorism;
(iv)
a pandemic; or
(v)
other event of similar nature.
(b)
"Emergency care" includes actual assistance or advice offered to avoid, mitigate, or
attempt to mitigate the effects of an emergency.
(c)
"Person" means the same as that term is defined in Subsection
26B-2-201(18)
.
26B-2-201
.
(2)
(a)
A person who, in good faith, assists governmental agencies or political
subdivisions with the activities described in Subsection
(2)(b)
is not liable for civil
damages or penalties as a result of any act or omission unless the person rendering
the assistance:
(i)
is grossly negligent;
(ii)
caused the emergency; or
(iii)
has engaged in criminal conduct.
(b)
The following activities are protected from liability in accordance with Subsection
(2)(a)
:
(i)
implementing measures to control the causes of epidemic, pandemic,
communicable diseases, or other conditions significantly affecting public health,
as necessary to protect the public health in accordance with
Title 26A, Chapter 1,
Local Health Departments
;
(ii)
investigating, controlling, and treating suspected bioterrorism or disease in
accordance with
Title 26B, Chapter 7, Part 4
Title 26B, Chapter 7, Part 3
,
Treatment, Isolation, and Quarantine Procedures for Communicable Diseases;
(iii)
responding to:
(A)
a national, state, or local emergency;
(B)
a public health emergency as defined in Section
26B-7-301
; or
(C)
a declaration by the President of the United States or other federal official
requesting public health related activities; and
(iv)
providing a facility for use by a governmental agency or political subdivision to
distribute pharmaceuticals or administer vaccines to the public.
(c)
Subsection
(2)(a)
applies to a person even if that person has:
(i)
a duty to respond; or
(ii)
an expectation of payment or remuneration.
(3)
The immunity in Subsection
(2)
is in addition to any immunity protections that may
apply in state or federal law.
Section 4.
Effective Date.
This bill takes effect on
May 6, 2026
.
2-20-26 12:50 PM