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Minutes for SB234 - Committee on Public Health and Welfare
Short Title
Prohibiting governmental entities from sharing or transmitting social care information into a closed loop referral system.
Minutes Content for Fri, Mar 24, 2023
Jenna Moyer, Staff Revisor, gave an overview of the bill.
Steven Greene testified as a proponent of SB234 (Attachment 22). He said at Findhelp, the mission is to connect all people in need and the programs that serve them, with dignity and ease.They believe that privacy is a critical part of preserving that dignity. It is their belief that when a person is seeking assistance whether at a local food pantry, community action program or a domestic assault shelter, that the person has a right to consent how, when and why that sensitive information is being accessed. Referrals for social services, which used to be transmitted by word of mouth, are being digitized for the first time. The digitization of social care referrals provides two opportunities for individual's privacy to be compromised. The first is the ability for individuals or organizations to be able to look up people by name and have access to all their social care referral history. The second is the situation in which referral information is sent to dozens of service providers. SB234 puts care coordination at the forefront while preserving the dignity, privacy and consent of the person receiving those services.
Paul Fassbender gave testimony in opposition of SB234 (Attachment 23) He stated that he objects to SB234 as it will place burdensome requirements on numerous organizations that already must comply with a myriad of federal and state privacy laws such as HIPAA and others. The bill also creates conflicting obligations for business associates that are already strictly governed by HIPAA and will create confusion among every health and social care provider in Kansas. This would impose massive burdens on providers in Kansas without justification.
Kelly Davyodov testified as an opponent to SB234. She stated that if data about child care programs/providers are subject to section four of the bill, then it appears Child Care Aware will be required to obtain explicit written consent from child care providers each time they provide their information to families. If that is the case, their ability to provide child care referrals my be severely restricted or delayed. They respectfully request that SB234 be amended to exclude child care from the definition of social care or otherwise exempt child care referrals from the requirements of the bill. (Attachment 24)
They took questions from committee members.
Opponent, written only testimony was submitted by:
Daniel Klassen, Kansas Action for Children (Attachment 25
Dennis Kriesel, Kansas Association of Local Health Departments (Attachment 26)
Jason Tiller, Saline County Health Department (Attachment 27
Adrienne Byrne, Sedgwick County Health Department (Attachment 28)
Leah Fliter, Kansas Association of School Boards (Attachment 29)
Jackie Counts, University of Kansas (Attachment 30)
D. Charles Hunt, Joohnson County Department of Health (Attachment 31)
Jessica Lenherr, United Way of Kaw Valley (Attachment 32)
Neutral, Written only was submitted by:
Gail Cozad, Kansas Children's Service League (Attachment 33)
Chairperson Gossage closed the hearing on SB234.
Chairperson adjourned the meeting at 9:40 a.m.
