Public health: hepatitis C.

Existing law, the Hepatitis C Education, Screening, and Treatment Act, requires the Director of Public Health to develop and implement a public education and outreach program to raise awareness of the hepatitis C virus aimed at high-risk groups, physician's offices, health care workers, and health care facilities that, among other things, includes hepatitis C counseling, education, and testing, as appropriate, into local state-funded programs. This bill would require a health care practitioner to offer a qualifying individual, as defined, a hepatitis C screening test or hepatitis C diagnostic test, as defined, unless the health care practitioner reasonably believes, among other things, that the qualifying individual is being treated for a life threatening emergency. If an individual consents to a hepatitis C screening test or diagnostic test and the test is positive or reactive, the health care practitioner would be required to offer followup health care or to refer the individual to a health care practitioner who can provide followup health care. The bill would require that the offering of a hepatitis C screening test or diagnostic test be culturally and linguistically appropriate, and would require the director to issue guidance on the culturally and linguistically appropriate offering of a test by July 1, 2015. These requirements would not apply to an individual receiving health care from a health care practitioner in a hospital or emergency room setting.