Existing law requires that every patient who has blood drawn at a primary care clinic, as defined, and who has consented to the test, be offered a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test that is consistent with the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for screening for HIV infection. Existing law specifies the manner in which the results of that test are provided.

Existing law authorized, from March 1, 2017, to February 28, 2019, a pilot project, administered by the State Department of Public Health, to assess and make recommendations regarding the effectiveness of the routine offering of an HIV test in the emergency department of a hospital. Existing law required the department to select 4 hospitals, or fewer under specified circumstances, that have emergency departments to voluntarily participate in the pilot project. Existing law required the participating hospitals to offer an HIV test to any patient in the hospital emergency department, as provided, to collect specified information, and to report the information to the department. Existing law required the department, by December 1, 2019, to complete a report to the Legislature on the findings of the hospitals in the pilot project and make recommendations about routine HIV testing in hospital emergency departments.

This bill would require the department to develop protocols for hospital emergency departments to implement an HIV testing program for emergency department patients. The bill would require the department’s protocols to address integration of opt-out HIV testing into the emergency department standard of care, streamlining HIV testing consent procedures, and structural strategies to minimize the need for provider intervention.