Bill > AB1129

This bill expands and clarifies California's birth defects monitoring program by empowering local health officers to establish their own systems for collecting and monitoring information about birth defects and related conditions. The bill defines "conditions" as health issues occurring within the first 12 months after an individual's birth, drawing from national health databases and medical eligibility criteria. It allows local health officers to require healthcare providers and laboratories to report birth defects and related conditions, either by making records available for review or by directly transmitting specified data. The bill emphasizes that local monitoring efforts should supplement, not impede, existing state programs and should consider cost-effective reporting methods. Importantly, the bill maintains strict confidentiality protections for collected information, prohibiting its use in legal proceedings and ensuring that only necessary demographic and diagnostic data can be collected without patient consent. The legislation also provides guidelines for data collection, research protocols, and establishes provisions for protecting individual privacy while enabling important public health research into the causes and prevention of birth defects and related conditions.

Budget and Finance, Health and Social Services, Justice

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1129