H-4513              _______________________________________________

                                    SECOND SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL NO. 2077

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By House Committee on Appropriations (originally sponsored by Representatives Brooks, Dellwo, Ballard, Rust, Rector, Grant, Anderson, Wolfe, Miller, Winsley, D. Sommers, Ferguson, Crane and Jacobsen)

Read first time 2/6/90.

AN ACT Relating to cancer reporting; adding new sections to chapter 70.54 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     It is the intent of the legislature to establish a system to accurately monitor the incidence of cancer in the state of Washington for the purposes of understanding, controlling, and reducing the occurrence of cancer in this state.  In order to accomplish this, the legislature has determined that cancer cases shall be reported to the department of health, and that there shall be established a state-wide population-based cancer registry.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The secretary of health may contract with either a recognized regional cancer research institution or regional tumor registry, or both, which shall hereinafter be called the contractor, to establish a state-wide cancer registry program and to obtain cancer reports from all or a portion of the state as required in section 3 of this act and to make available data for use in cancer research and for purposes of improving the public health.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     (1) The department of health shall adopt rules as to which types of cancer shall be reported, who shall report, and the form and timing of the reports.  The information collected shall include at least the following:

          (a) The name of the person who has cancer;

          (b) The address where that person resides;

          (c) The person's sex;

          (d) The person's race;

          (e) The person's date of birth;

          (f) The person's social security number;

          (g) The treating physician's name;

          (h) The hospital or outpatient facility where diagnosis was made;

          (i) The type of cancer, including site and histology;

          (j) The date of diagnosis; and

          (k) The vital status.

          (2) Every health care facility and independent clinical laboratory, and those physicians or others providing health care who diagnose or treat any patient with cancer who is not hospitalized within one month of diagnosis, will provide the contractor with the information required under subsection (1) of this section.  The required information may be collected on a regional basis where such a system exists and forwarded to the contractor in a form suitable for the purposes of sections 2 through 6 of this act.  Such reporting arrangements shall be reduced to a written agreement between the contractor and any regional reporting agency which shall detail the manner, form, and timeliness of the reporting.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     (1) Data obtained under section 3 of this act shall be used for statistical, scientific, medical research, and public health purposes only.

          (2) The department and its contractor shall ensure that access to data contained in the registry is consistent with federal law for the protection of human subjects and consistent with chapter 42.48 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     Providing information required under section 3 or 4 of this act shall not create any liability on the part of the provider nor shall it constitute a breach of confidentiality.  The contractor shall, at the request of the provider, but not more frequently than once a year, sign an oath of confidentiality, which reads substantially as follows:

          "As a condition of conducting research concerning persons who have received services from (name of the health care provider or facility), I ............... , agree not to divulge, publish, or otherwise make known to unauthorized persons or the public any information obtained in the course of such research that could lead to identification of such persons receiving services, or to the identification of their health care providers.  I recognize that unauthorized release of confidential information may subject me to civil liability under the provisions of state law."

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.     The state board of health shall adopt rules to implement sections 2 through 5 of this act, including but not limited to a definition of cancer.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7.     Sections 2 through 6 of this act are each added to chapter 70.54 RCW.