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| Medical Services ● Disease Control |
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Program Areas General Information |
Legislative Update The 63rd Legislative Assembly convened in
January of this year. Although more than 800 bills have been introduced,
relatively few have a direct impact on the work of the Division of Disease
Control. Here is a summary of the bills that we are following/tracking or
providing testimony on. HB 1088 - The department supported this bill that allows
the state health officer's written orders to have the same effect as a
physician's standing orders. This has passed the House and will now be heard in
the Senate. HB 1165 - The department supported this bill that would have mandated adult immunizations be entered into the North Dakota Immunization Information System (NDIIS) and require non-compliant providers be reported to the appropriate licensing board for possible disciplinary action. This bill failed in the House. HB 1314 - This bill adds a layer of confidentiality to
genetic testing performed on people and allows for certain exemptions. The
department tracked this one and provided recommendations for amendments. The
concern with the original bill is that it may apply to diagnostic testing,
especially for those tests that detect DNA or RNA of infectious agents. An
additional concern addressed by the amendments was public health testing that is
performed often to aid in understanding the epidemiology of a disease cluster.
This bill has passed the House as amended and will now go to the Senate. HB 1038 and SB 2193 - Both of these bills establish an
autism registry. Disease Control is monitoring these bills because there is a
potential that our electronic disease reporting system could be used to host the
autism registry. HB 1038 has passed through the House and will move on to the
Senate. SB 2193 has passed the Senate and will now be heard by the House. |
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Copyright © 2010 North Dakota Department of Health |