81-671.

Release of information to public health departments and agencies; requirements.

(1) Except as otherwise provided by the law governing a specific medical record and health information registry, the department may release information contained in a registry to official public health departments and agencies as follows:

(a) Upon request by an official local health department within the State of Nebraska, the department may release such data to the requesting local health department. The official local health department shall not contact patients using data received under sections 81-663 to 81-675 without approval by the department of an application made pursuant to section 81-666; and

(b) Upon approval of an application by federal, state, or local official public health agencies made pursuant to section 81-666, the department may release such data.

(2) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, the receiving agency shall not further disclose such data to any third party but may publish aggregate statistical reports, except that no patient-identifying data shall be divulged, made public, or released to any public or private person or entity. The receiving agency shall comply with the patient contact provisions of sections 81-663 to 81-675. The receiving agency shall acknowledge the department and its medical record and health information registries in any publication in which information obtained from the medical record and health information registries is used.

(3) The release and acknowledgment provisions of this section do not apply to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States Public Health Service of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, or cancer registries located outside Nebraska which receive data through approved data exchange agreements.