1. A county or multicounty consortium of agencies providing health, counseling, economic assistance, education, law enforcement, or therapeutic services may establish a multidisciplinary team for the more effective planning and delivery of services to an individual or family under the following conditions:
a. The team complies with federal regulations regarding confidentiality.
b. The agencies comprising the team have written confidentiality standards.
c. The agencies comprising the team enter into an annual interagency agreement to comply with confidentiality standards specified in the agreement.
d. An agency initiating a multidisciplinary team obtains a signed agreement from an individual authorizing the team to share information concerning the individual or the individual's family on a confidential basis.
2. The activities of a multidisciplinary community services team shall not duplicate the activities of a multidisciplinary team for child abuse under section 235A.13, dependent adult abuse activities under section 235B.6, area education agency activities under section 294A.14, or child victim services provided under section 915.35.
3. A multidisciplinary community services team shall select a chairperson and other officers as deemed necessary by the members of the team. A multidisciplinary community services team is not a governmental body as defined in section 21.2 and is not subject to the provisions of chapter 21, relating to open meetings. Notwithstanding chapter 22, the confidentiality of information in the possession of a multidisciplinary team which is required by law to be confidential shall be maintained except as specifically provided by this section.
4. The members of a multidisciplinary community services team are expressly authorized to orally disclose personally identifying information to one another which is otherwise required by law to be confidential. Disclosure of confidential information other than oral information between team members under provisions of this section is expressly prohibited.
5. A member of a multidisciplinary community services team shall not use confidential information obtained from another team member except in the best interests of the subject of the confidential information and shall not disclose such information to another person except as otherwise authorized by law. A member of a multidisciplinary community services team who willfully uses or discloses confidential information in violation of this section commits a serious misdemeanor. Notwithstanding section 903.1, the penalty for a person convicted pursuant to this subsection is a fine of not more than five hundred dollars in the case of a first offense and not more than five thousand dollars in the case of each subsequent offense.
96 Acts, ch 1156, §1; 98 Acts, ch 1090, §70, 84
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