Client Alert: Virginia State Board of Health Adds COVID-19 Reporting Requirements
On December 21, 2020, the Virginia State Board of Health published new COVID-19 reporting requirements in the Virginia Register. Physicians and directors of medical care facilities must report cases of COVID-19 when they treat, examine, hospitalize, or admit into the intensive care unit someone who is infected with, or suspected to be infected with, COVID-19. Physicians and directors will be required to report the person’s name: phone number; email address; address; age; date of birth; race; ethnicity; sex; pregnancy status; name of disease diagnosed or suspected; medical record number; date of illness onset; available laboratory tests and results; and the name, address, and telephone number of the physician and medical facility where the examination was done. Case reports will have to be made through the Department of Health Confidential Morbidity Report Portal within 24 hours. Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions should be made through the entity’s participation in the Emergency Department Care Coordination Program.
Directors of laboratories, and pharmacies that hold Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments Certificates of Waiver, must report all COVID-19 tests, positive and negative. Each report must give the source of the specimen; laboratory method and result; the name, telephone number, email address, address, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, sex, and pregnancy status of the person from whom the specimen was obtained; and the name, address, and telephone number of the physician at whose request, and medical facility at which, the examination was made. Reports must be made within 24 hours to the Department of Health and can be made on Form Epi-1 or the laboratory’s own form if it contains the required information.
Finally, any person in charge of a hospital, nursing facility or home, assisted living facility, or a correctional facility must notify a person practicing funeral services if they are transferring custody of a dead body to a person practicing funeral services and the deceased person had COVID-19 immediately prior to death.
These new reporting requirements are scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. If you have any questions about these or any other COVID-19 reporting requirements your practice or facility is subject to, please contact Peter Mellette, Harrison Gibbs, or Elizabeth Dahl-Coleman at Mellette PC.
This client advisory is for general educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal advice specific to any situation you may have and it does not cover all of the COVID-19 reporting requirements that you, your facility, or your practice may be subject to. Individuals desiring legal advice should contact legal counsel for up-to-date and fact-specific advice.
