ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 4253

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 23, 2020

      The Assembly Health Committee reports favorably an Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly Bill No. 4253.

      Under the bill, a clinical laboratory is to electronically record the race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity of each patient, who presents with a non-electronic order for testing at a clinical laboratory patient service center.  If a clinical laboratory processes a specimen without the presence of a patient, the clinical laboratory shall not be responsible for recording and reporting the patient’s gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic information.

      Race and ethnicity selections are to include, but are not to be limited to:  African American, Alaska Native, American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Latino, more than one race, Native Hawaiian, Other Pacific Islander, White, and prefer not to say.  Sexual orientation selections are to include, but are not to be limited to:  bisexual, heterosexual, gay, lesbian, unsure, other, and prefer not to say.  Gender identity selections are to include, but are not to be limited to:  male, female, transgender female, transgender male, other, and prefer not to say.

      Any health care related data that is required under State law to be reported by a clinical laboratory to a local or State governmental entity is to include any corresponding gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic data recorded pursuant to the bill’s provisions, and is to be incorporated into the corresponding disease surveillance reporting system of the local or State governmental entity.

      Under the bill, a non-electronic specimen collection and analysis requisition form distributed by a clinical laboratory is to contain a section for the manual entry of the patient’s racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, and gender identity information on the form.  A clinical laboratory that fails to comply with the provisions of this section is to be liable to a penalty in accordance with the provisions of sections 13 and 14 of P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-13 and C.26:2H-14).

      Any electronic medical records or laboratory information management systems used in this State, on or after the effective date of this bill, is to be configured in a manner that prevents an authorized user from saving or storing a patient’s demographic information into the electronic medical records or laboratory information management systems unless a patient’s gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic information is recorded.  The gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic information of a patient is to be included in laboratory orders generated by electronic medical record systems.

      Nothing in the bill’s provisions is to be construed to compel a patient to disclose the patient’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity to a clinical laboratory, health care provider, or any other entity.