Introduced Version
House Bill 2831 History
| Email
Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2831
(By Delegates Ferns, Storch, Miley, Eldridge,
Fragale, Moore, Diserio, Ferro, Cowles,
Ellington and Householder)
[Introduced March 5, 2013; referred to the
Committee on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §16-3-4 and §16-3-5 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to mandatory
immunizations for school children; providing exemptions;
application of informed consent; and composition and
appointment of the Childhood Immunization Advisory Committee.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §16-3-4 and §16-3-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE AND OTHER
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
§16-3-4. Compulsory immunization of school children; information
disseminated; offenses; penalties.
Whenever (a) When a resident birth occurs, the state director
of health Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health shall
promptly provide parents of the newborn child with information on immunizations mandated by this state or required for admission to
a public school in this state.
(b) Except as provided in this subsection, all children
entering school for the first time in this state shall must have
been immunized against diphtheria, polio, rubeola, measles, mumps,
rubella, tetanus and whooping cough. Any person who cannot give
satisfactory proof of having been immunized previously or a
certificate from a reputable physician showing that an immunization
for any or all diphtheria, polio, rubeola, rubella, tetanus and
whooping cough is impossible or improper or sufficient reason why
any or all immunizations should not be done, shall be immunized for
diphtheria, polio, rubeola, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough
prior to being admitted in any of the schools in the state. No
child or person shall be admitted or received in any of the schools
of the state until he or she has been immunized as hereinafter
provided or produces a certificate from a reputable physician
showing that an immunization for diphtheria, polio, rubeola,
rubella, tetanus and whooping cough has been done or is impossible
or improper or other sufficient reason why such immunizations have
not been done. A child may be exempt from the requirements of this
section as follows:
_______________(1) Medical exemption. -- A parent or guardian of a child
entering a school in this state for the first time may request a
medical exemption from a required vaccination. The request must be accompanied with a certificate signed by a physician who is duly
registered and licensed to practice medicine in West Virginia or
contiguous states that sets forth the basis of his or her medical
opinion that immunization against diphtheria, polio, measles, mumps
tetanus or whooping cough is medically impossible or improper,
whether this exemption is permanent or temporary and to which
vaccinations the child is to be exempt. Alternately, immunity
against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria or tetanus may
be shown through laboratory testing results in lieu of vaccination.
_______________(2) General requirements for exemption. -- Within fifteen
business days of submission of all required documents to the local
health officer in the county where the child is to attend school,
a confirmation of receipt by the local health officer shall be
submitted to the Bureau for Public Health, to the school which the
child is to attend and the parent.
_______________(3) The Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health may
temporarily suspend an exemption permitted by this subsection
during a health emergency. The exempted student may return to
school when the health emergency has been resolved or abated as
verified by the Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health.
_______________(c) Any teacher, A teacher, school nurse or other school
employee having information concerning any a person who attempts to
enter school for the first time without having been immunized
against diphtheria, polio, rubeola, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough shall report the names of all such
persons to the county health officer. It shall be is the duty of
the health officer in counties having a full-time health officer to
see that such persons are immunized before entering school.
Provided, That Persons enrolling from schools outside of the state
may be provisionally enrolled under minimum criteria established by
the Director of the Department of Health Commissioner of the Bureau
for Public Health so that the person's immunization may be
completed while missing a minimum amount of school: Provided,
That no person shall be is allowed to enter school without at least
one dose of each required vaccine.
In counties where there is no full-time health officer or
district health officer, the county commission or municipal council
shall appoint competent physicians to do the immunizations and fix
their compensation. County health departments shall furnish the
biologicals for this immunization free of charge.
(d) Health officers and physicians who shall do this perform
the immunization work shall give to all persons and children a
certificate free of charge showing that they have been immunized
against diphtheria, polio, rubeola, measles, mumps, rubella,
tetanus and whooping cough or he or she may give the certificate to
any a person or child whom he or she knows to have been immunized
against diphtheria, polio, rubeola, measles, mumps, rubella,
tetanus and whooping cough. If any physician shall give any a physician provides a person a false certificate of immunization
against diphtheria, polio, rubeola, measles, mumps, rubella,
tetanus and whooping cough, he or she shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than $25
nor more than $100.
Any parent or guardian who refuses to permit his or her child
to be immunized against diphtheria, polio, rubeola, rubella,
tetanus and whooping cough, who cannot give satisfactory proof that
the child or person has been immunized against diphtheria, polio,
rubeola, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough previously, or a
certificate from a reputable physician showing that immunization
for any or all is impossible or improper, or sufficient reason why
any or all immunizations should not be done, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and, except as herein otherwise provided, shall, upon
conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more
than $50 for each offense.
_______________(e) Health care providers who perform vaccinations in the
State of West Virginia shall obey vaccine adverse event reporting
requirements under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of
1986, which mandate that health care providers report serious
health problems following vaccination including hospitalizations,
injuries and deaths, to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System (VAERS).
_______________(f) The Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health shall propose rules for legislative approval in accordance with the
provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to
implement the provisions of this section, addressing the issue of
school transfers, reporting requirements for each county related to
the exemptions and the membership of the immunization advisory
committee as provided in section five of this article: Provided,
That any additions or deletions of required vaccinations or
exemptions is the sole authority of the Legislature.
§16-3-5. Distribution of free vaccine preventives of disease.
(a) Declaration of legislative findings and purpose. -- The
Legislature finds and declares that early immunization for
preventable diseases represents one of the most cost-effective
means of disease prevention. The savings which can be realized
from immunization, compared to the cost of health care necessary to
treat the illness and lost productivity, are substantial.
Immunization of children at an early age serves as a preventative
measure both in time and money and is essential to maintain our
children's health and well-being. The costs of childhood
immunizations should not be allowed to preclude the benefits
available from a comprehensive, medically supervised child
immunization service. Furthermore, the federal government has
established goals that require ninety percent of all children to be
immunized by age two and provided funding to allow uninsured
children to meet this goal. The Legislature further finds that the right to informed consent for a medical procedure which carries the
risk of injury or death, no matter how slight, is a human right.
(b) The state director of health Commissioner of the Bureau
for Public Health shall acquire vaccine for the prevention of
polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus,
hepatitis-b, haemophilus influenzae-b and other vaccine preventives
of disease as may be deemed necessary or required by law and shall
distribute the same, free of charge, in such quantities as he or
she may deem deems necessary, to county and municipal health
officers, to be used by them for the benefit of, and without
expense to, the citizens within their respective jurisdictions, to
check contagions and control epidemics.
(c) The county and municipal health officers shall have the
responsibility to properly store and distribute, free of charge,
vaccines to private medical or osteopathic physicians within their
jurisdictions to be utilized to check contagions and control
epidemics. Provided, That The private medical or osteopathic
physicians shall may not make a charge for the vaccine itself when
administering it to a patient. The county and municipal health
officers shall provide a receipt to the state director of health
Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health for any vaccine
delivered as herein provided.
(d) The director of the division of health Commissioner of the
Bureau for Public Health is charged with establishing a childhood immunization advisory committee that is fairly balanced in terms of
the points of view of its members and whose members do not have
conflicts of interest with the vaccine manufacturer or who could
financially gain directly or indirectly from vaccine mandates. The
Childhood Immunization Advisory Committee is to plan for universal
access, make recommendations on the distribution of vaccines
acquired pursuant to this section and tracking of track
immunization compliance in accordance with federal and state laws.
The Childhood Immunization Advisory Committee shall be appointed by
the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources no
later than July 1, 1994, 2013 and shall be comprised of
representatives from the following groups: Public health nursing,
public health officers, primary health care providers,
pediatricians, family practice physicians, health care
administrators, state Medicaid program, the health insurance
industry, the Public Employees Insurance Agency, the self-insured
industry and consumers. A minimum of three consumers should be
appointed by the State Director for the National Vaccine
Information Center in addition to the consumers appointed by the
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources. The
state epidemiologist shall serve as an advisor to the committee.
Members of the advisory committee shall serve two-year terms.
(e) All health insurance policies and prepaid care policies
issued in this state which provide coverage for the children of the insured shall provide coverage for child immunization services to
include the cost of the vaccine, if incurred by the health care
provider, and all costs of administration from birth through age
sixteen years. These services shall be are exempt from any
deductible, per-visit charge and/or copayment provisions which may
be in force in these policies or contracts. This section does not
exempt other health care services provided at the time of
immunization from any deductible and/or copayment provisions.
(f) Attending physicians, midwives, nurse practitioners,
hospitals, birthing centers, clinics and other appropriate health
care providers shall provide parents of newborns and preschool age
children with information on the following immunizations:
Diphtheria, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis-b,
haemophilus influenzae-b and whooping cough. This information
should include the availability of free immunization services for
children.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide exemptions for
immunizations of public school age children; to make express that
informed consent applies to mandatory vaccinations; to establish
specific criteria for composition of the Childhood Immunization
Advisory Committee and a deadline date for appointment to the
committee.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.