(a) The department shall establish a list of reportable diseases and conditions. For each reportable disease and condition, the department shall specify the timeliness requirements related to the reporting of each disease and condition, and the mechanisms required for, and the content to be included in, reports made pursuant to this section. The list of reportable diseases and conditions may include both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. The list may include those diseases that are either known to be, or suspected of being, transmitted by milk or milk-based products. The list may be modified at any time by the department, after consultation with the California Conference of Local Health Officers. Modification of the list shall be exempt from the administrative regulation and rulemaking requirements of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, and shall be implemented without being adopted as a regulation, except that the revised list shall be filed with the Secretary of State and printed in the California Code of Regulations as required pursuant to subdivision (e). Those diseases listed as reportable shall be properly reported as required to the department by the health officer.

(b) The department shall establish a list of communicable diseases and conditions for which clinical laboratories shall submit a culture or a specimen to the local public health laboratory. The list shall set forth the conditions under which the culture and specimen shall also be submitted to the State Public Health Laboratory. The list may be modified at any time by the department, in consultation with appropriate local public health stakeholders, including, but not limited to, local health officers and public health laboratory directors. Both establishment and modification of the list shall be exempt from the administrative regulation and rulemaking requirements of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, and shall be implemented without being adopted as a regulation, except that the initial list and any modifications shall be filed with the Secretary of State and printed in the California Code of Regulations as required pursuant to subdivision (e).

(c) The department may from time to time adopt and enforce regulations requiring strict or modified isolation, or quarantine, for any of the contagious, infectious, or communicable diseases, if in the opinion of the department the action is necessary for the protection of the public health.

(d) The health officer may require strict or modified isolation, or quarantine, for any case of contagious, infectious, or communicable disease, when this action is necessary for the protection of the public health.

(e) The lists established pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b) and any subsequent modifications shall be published in Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no civil or criminal penalty, fine, sanction, or finding, or denial, suspension, or revocation of licensure for any person or facility may be imposed based upon a failure to provide the notification of a reportable disease or condition or to provide the submission of a culture or specimen that is required under this section, unless the name of the disease or condition that is required to be reported, or for which a culture or specimen is required to be submitted, was printed in the California Code of Regulations and the department notified the person or facility of the disease or condition at least six months prior to the date of the claimed failure to report or submit.

(g) Commencing July 1, 2009, or within one year of the establishment of a state electronic laboratory reporting system, whichever is later, a report generated pursuant to this section, or Section 121022, by a laboratory shall be submitted electronically in a manner specified by the department. The department shall allow laboratories that receive incomplete patient information to report the name of the provider who submitted the request to the local health officer.

(h) The department may, through its Internet Web site and via electronic mail, advise out-of-state laboratories that are known to the department to test specimens from California residents of the new reporting requirements.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 540, Sec. 2. (AB 186) Effective January 1, 2012.)