Senate Bill S1653

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S1653

SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring immuni-
zation information systems to record data on the number of vaccine
exemptions reported by each health care provider

 
PURPOSE:

To ensure that the Department of Health has sufficient information to
investigate suspicious patterns of vaccine medical exemptions and take
appropriate actions.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Amends section 2168 of the public health law to require that
records of medical exemptions to the school vaccination requirement
issued by health care providers must be entered into the statewide
immunization information system or the New York City Health Department's
              

citywide immunization registry in a manner that allows the Commissioner
of the Department of Health to search and access the number of
exemptions reported by each individual health care provider.

Section 2: Effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In 2019 New York State ended the religious exemption to school vaccina-
tion requirements. Children who have medical conditions that would
prevent them from receiving the normal schedule of vaccines are still
eligible to receive medical exemptions from the requirement.  However,
other states that have ended religious exemptions to vaccine require-
ments have seen a surge in spurious medical exemptions. For example,
news outlets have reported that 30-50% of kindergarteners at some Cali-
fornia schools received medical exemptions after California ended the
religious exemption to school vaccination requirements.

Other reporting uncovered the fact that a few "bad apples" within the
medical profession were handing out large numbers of exemptions often
after having been d by parents to find a reason to exempt their child.

To avoid the same problems in New York, the Department of Health must
have the tools to quickly and easily identify any medical practitioners
who may be giving out an unusually large number of medical exemptions.
Current law requires that health care providers must report the immuni-
zation status of children under their care, and this information is
entered into the statewide immunization information system (or in New
York City, into the city's immunization registry) and subsequently made
available in the aggregate for schools and school districts around the
state. However, the Department does not currently track information
about exemptions at the level of individual health care providers. This
legislation would require that information on medical exemptions be
entered into the existing immunization information systems in a manner
that would allow the Commissioner of the Department of Health and his or
her designees to search and access the number of exemptions reported by
each individual health care provider. This information will allow the

Department to identify and investigate any suspicious patterns of
exemptions.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2020 - S6771 Referred to Health

Assembly

2020 - A8679 Referred to Health

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Minimal

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become a law.