No. CS/CS/SB 42
Filed under Healthcare.
Specific Medical Diagnoses in Child Protective Investigations; Providing an exception to the requirement that the Department of Children and Families immediately forward certain allegations to a law enforcement agency; requiring a child protective investigator to inform the subject of an investigation of a certain duty; requiring Child Protection Teams to consult with a licensed physician or advanced practice registered nurse with specified pediatric experience when evaluating certain reports; authorizing a parent or legal custodian of a child who is the subject of certain orders to request specified medical examinations of the child within a specified timeframe, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDWhen a parent claims a child has rickets, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, or vitamin D deficiency, the department may delay forwarding a criminal allegation to law enforcement, though the delayed report must still go out once the investigation ends if abuse is still suspected.
Investigators must tell parents about their duty to report such a diagnosis and its treating provider within 10 days, then request that provider's medical records, which the provider must hand over within 14 days.
Child Protection Teams must consult a physician or advanced practice registered nurse experienced in treating these same four conditions before evaluating a child reported to have one of them.
Parents may also request a second medical exam, at their own expense, by a provider of their choosing, and if its findings conflict with the first exam, the department must convene a case staffing to sort out the disagreement.
AIIf a parent or legal custodian alleges the child has one of four specified preexisting conditions, or requests a medical exam under the bill's new second-opinion provision, the department may delay forwarding the criminal allegation to law enforcement.
AIAt the start of an investigation, the investigator must tell the parent or legal custodian that they must report any of the four listed preexisting diagnoses and the treating provider's contact information within 10 days.
AIWhen a child is reported to have rickets, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, or vitamin D deficiency, the Child Protection Team must consult a physician or advanced practice registered nurse with experience treating those specific conditions.
AIWithin 10 days of a medical exam, a parent or legal custodian may request the child be examined again by a Child Protection Team, or by their own chosen physician or APRN for a second opinion or a differential diagnosis on the four listed conditions.
AIOnce a parent reports one of the four listed preexisting diagnoses, the investigator must request the child's relevant medical records directly from the health care professional who made the diagnosis or treated the condition.
AIIf the findings from the original exam and the parent-requested second exam differ, the department must immediately convene a case staffing with the investigator, supervisor, legal staff, a Child Protection Team representative, and the lead agency to work out the disagreement.
AIWhen the department requests a child's medical records under the new authority to investigate a reported preexisting diagnosis, the records custodian must furnish them within 14 days of the request.
AIThe physician or APRN who performs a parent-requested second-opinion or differential-diagnosis exam must submit a written report of findings and conclusions within 10 days of the exam.