HF 2065 (LSB 5377HH (4) 89)

HOUSE FILE 2065

BY  ANDERSON

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the establishment of the Iowa violent death reporting system.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  NEW SECTION.  135.193  Iowa violent death reporting system —— established.
   1.  An Iowa violent death reporting system is established in the department.
   2.  The Iowa violent death reporting system shall do all of the following:
   a.  Collect, review, and analyze information, data, and records pertaining to violent deaths in the state.
   b.  Monitor the incidence of and factors contributing to violent deaths.
   c.  Perform appropriate epidemiologic studies of violent deaths.
   d.  Analyze trends and patterns in, and circumstances related to, violent deaths.
   e.  With the assistance of an advisory group established under this section, make recommendations to relevant entities to prevent violent deaths and make other recommendations as necessary to maintain and administer the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   3.  The director shall do all of the following:
   a.  Specify the types of violent deaths that shall be included in the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   b.  Specify the information, data elements, and records to be collected for use by the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   c.  Specify the sources from which information, data elements, and records are to be collected for use by the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   d.  Specify any data collection model to be used by the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   e.  Establish an advisory group of data providers and interested stakeholders to make recommendations to the department for maintaining and administering the Iowa violent death reporting system and to the governor, the general assembly, law enforcement agencies and other agencies, and other appropriate stakeholders to prevent violent deaths based upon an analysis of the violent death data collected.
   4.  The Iowa violent death reporting system shall collect information regarding violent deaths in this state only from existing sources relating to violent deaths and shall not conduct independent criminal investigations in order to obtain information, data, or records for use by the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   5.  The Iowa violent death reporting system shall comply with the data collection guidance provided by the centers for disease control and prevention national violent death reporting system.
   6.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary pertaining to the sharing or disclosure of information, data, and records that are required by law to be kept confidential, any law enforcement agency or medical examiner that responds to a violent death investigation shall provide information, data, and records to the Iowa violent death reporting system and shall otherwise assist the Iowa violent death reporting system in the execution of this section.
   7.  Information, data, and records collected for use and maintained by the Iowa violent death reporting system, including but not limited to medical records, law enforcement investigative records, laboratory reports, death certificates, and other information, data, and records concerning a decedent, and the work product created in executing the purposes and duties of the Iowa violent death reporting system, are confidential records under chapter 22 and shall not be subject to subpoena or discovery while under the control of the Iowa violent death reporting system. Such information, data, and records are not admissible in any criminal or civil proceeding if obtained through or from the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   8.  At the request of the director, every department, agency, office of the state, and political subdivision of the state shall provide information, data, and records and otherwise assist in the execution of the requirements of this section.
   9.  The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to establish, maintain, and administer the Iowa violent death reporting system including but not limited to rules relating to all of the following:
   a.  Procedures to make available to researchers confidential information collected by the Iowa violent death reporting system.
   b.  Procedures to make confidential information collected by the Iowa violent death review team available to the Iowa domestic abuse death review team and the Iowa child abuse death review team.
   10.  The department may administer the program through a contract with a public or private agency experienced in conducting similar programs.
   11.  For the purposes of this section:
   a.  “Iowa violent death reporting system” means the process of obtaining records pertaining to a violent death, abstracting specific data elements, and entering those data elements into a secure federal database.
   b.  “Violent death” means a death resulting from the use of physical force or power against oneself, another person, or a group or community, and includes but is not limited to homicide, suicide, legal intervention deaths, undetermined intent deaths, unintentional firearm deaths, and deaths resulting from terrorism.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill relates to the Iowa violent death reporting system. 
   The national violent death reporting system was implemented in 2005 under the purview of the centers for disease control and prevention of the United States department of health and human services. The CDC provides grants to states, including Iowa, to collect data on violent deaths to enter into a national database. Iowa began collecting data beginning in calendar year 2015. 
   The existing Iowa violent death reporting system is authorized, generally, as a duty of the state board of health and the department of public health (DPH), and under other general provisions of law. The bill would specifically establish the reporting system under a separate Code section. 
   The bill establishes the Iowa violent death reporting system (reporting system) in DPH; specifies the duties of the reporting system and the director of public health including the establishment of an advisory group of data providers and interested stakeholders to make recommendations relating to the reporting system; requires that the reporting system complies with data collection guidance provided by the CDC national violent death reporting system; provides for the sharing and disclosure of information, data, and records with the reporting system by law enforcement agencies and the medical examiner relating to a violent death investigation and for purposes of administering the reporting system; includes confidentiality protections; provides for assistance from other departments, agencies, offices of the state, and political subdivisions of the state in providing information, data, and records and in otherwise assisting in the execution of the duties of the reporting system; and directs DPH to adopt administrative rules to establish, maintain, and administer the reporting system. 
   The bill defines “Iowa violent death reporting system” and “violent death” for the purposes of the bill.