N.Y. Public Health Law § 2780: Definitions

§ 2780. Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms

shall have the following meanings:

1. "AIDS" means acquired immune deficiency syndrome, as may be defined

from time to time by the centers for disease control of the United

States public health service.

2. "HIV infection" means infection with the human immunodeficiency

virus or any other related virus identified as a probable causative

agent of AIDS.

3. "HIV related illness" means any illness that may result from or may

be associated with HIV infection.

4. "HIV related test or HIV related testing" means any laboratory

test, tests or series of tests approved for the diagnosis of HIV.

4-a. "Rapid HIV test or testing" means any laboratory screening test

or tests approved for detecting antibodies to HIV, that produce results

in sixty minutes or less, and encompasses a confirmatory HIV related

test if the screening test is reactive.

5. "Capacity to consent" means an individual's ability, determined

without regard to the individual's age, to understand and appreciate the

nature and consequences of a proposed health care service, treatment, or

procedure, or of a proposed disclosure of confidential HIV related

information, as the case may be, and to make an informed decision

concerning the service, treatment, procedure or disclosure.

6. "Protected individual" means a person who is the subject of an HIV

related test or who has been diagnosed as having HIV infection, AIDS or

HIV related illness.

7. "Confidential HIV related information" means any information, in

the possession of a person who provides one or more health or social

services or who obtains the information pursuant to a release of

confidential HIV related information, concerning whether an individual

has been the subject of an HIV related test, or has HIV infection, HIV

related illness or AIDS, or information which identifies or reasonably

could identify an individual as having one or more of such conditions,

including information pertaining to such individual's contacts.

8. "Health or social service" means any public or private care,

treatment, clinical laboratory test, counseling or educational service

for adults or children, and acute, chronic, custodial, residential,

outpatient, home or other health care provided pursuant to this chapter

or the social services law; public assistance or care as defined in

article one of the social services law; employment-related services,

housing services, foster care, shelter, protective services, day care,

or preventive services provided pursuant to the social services law;

services for the mentally disabled as defined in article one of the

mental hygiene law; probation services, provided pursuant to articles

twelve and twelve-A of the executive law; parole services, provided

pursuant to article eight of the correction law; corrections and

community supervision, provided pursuant to the correction law;

detention and rehabilitative services provided pursuant to article

nineteen-G of the executive law; and the activities of the health care

worker HIV/HBV advisory panel pursuant to article twenty-seven-DD of

this chapter.

9. "Release of confidential HIV related information" means a written

authorization for disclosure of confidential HIV related information

which is signed by the protected individual, or if the protected

individual lacks capacity to consent, a person authorized pursuant to

law to consent to health care for the individual. Such release shall be

dated and shall specify to whom disclosure is authorized, the purpose

for such disclosure and the time period during which the release is to

be effective. A general authorization for the release of medical or

other information shall not be construed as a release of confidential

HIV related information, unless such authorization specifically

indicates its dual purpose as a general authorization and an

authorization for the release of confidential HIV related information

and complies with the requirements of this subdivision.

10. "Contact" means an identified spouse or sex partner of the

protected individual, a person identified as having shared hypodermic

needles or syringes with the protected individual or a person who the

protected individual may have exposed to HIV under circumstances that

present a risk of transmission of HIV, as determined by the

commissioner.

11. "Person" includes any natural person, partnership, association,

joint venture, trust, public or private corporation, or state or local

government agency.

12. "Health facility" means a hospital as defined in section two

thousand eight hundred one of this chapter, blood bank, blood center,

sperm bank, organ or tissue bank, clinical laboratory, or facility

providing care or treatment to persons with a mental disability as

defined in article one of the mental hygiene law.

13. "Health care provider" means any physician, nurse, provider of

services for the mentally disabled as defined in article one of the

mental hygiene law, or other person involved in providing medical,

nursing, counseling, or other health care or mental health service,

including those associated with, or under contract to, a health

maintenance organization or medical services plan.

14. "Child" means any protected individual actually or apparently

under eighteen years of age.

15. "Authorized agency" means any agency defined by section three

hundred seventy-one of the social services law and, for the purposes of

this article, shall include such corporations incorporated or organized

under the laws of the state as may be specifically authorized by their

certificates of incorporation to receive children for the purposes of

adoption or foster care.

16. "Insurance institution" means any corporation, association,

partnership, reciprocal exchange, interinsurer, fraternal benefits

society, agent, broker or other entity including, but not limited to,

any health maintenance organization, medical service plan, or hospital

plan which: (a) is engaged in the business of insurance; (b) provides

health services coverage plans; or (c) provides benefits under,

administers, or provides services for, an employee welfare benefit plan

as defined in 29 U.S.C. 1002(1).

17. "Insurance support organization" means any person who regularly

engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or

collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose of

providing the information to an insurance institution for insurance

transactions, including: (a) the furnishing of consumer reports or

investigative consumer reports to an insurance instititution for use in

connection with an insurance transaction; or (b) the collection of

personal information from insurance institutions or other insurance

support organizations for the purpose of detecting or preventing fraud,

material misrepresentation, or material non-disclosure in connection

with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity. The following

persons shall not be considered "insurance-support organizations" for

the purposes of this article: government institutions, insurance

institutions, health facilities and health care providers.