Confidentiality of Health Records Related to HIV Status or Testing - Mo. Rev. Stat. §191.656

The statute above addresses the confidentiality of health records related to HIV status or testing.

Under this statute all records and knowledge concerning an individual’s HIV infection status or testing results, held by any person or the state, shall be kept strictly confidential and not disclosed except in very limited circumstances.  These limited exceptions would allow disclosure to the following:

• public employees who need to know in order to perform their duties
• peace officers as defined by the statute
• prosecuting attorneys for particular crimes as declared by statute
• persons other than government employees who are entrusted with an individual’s care, for example foster parents
• victims of any sexual offense
• an individual testing positive or false positive for any STI requesting those results

Notes:

The statute clarifies that it does note impose a duty on a person to disclose the results of an individual's HIV testing to a spouse or health care professional or other potentially exposed person, parent or guardian.  Also, no one to whom results of an individual's HIV testing have been disclosed pursuant to a written authorization shall further disclose such results.