The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) There is a need to enhance California’s ability to obtain and use federal funding, as awarded in the State Cooperative Grant Agreement for health information exchange, for the establishment of statewide health information exchange infrastructure in California. The California Health and Human Services Agency is authorized by the Legislature, under Section 130255, to use those federal funds to achieve that purpose.

(b) Health information exchange has the potential to significantly improve the quality of treatment and care, reduce unnecessary health care costs, and increase administrative efficiencies within the health care system. The application of health information exchange technology to manage health information will also have a significant impact on consumers, health care facilities, and licensed health care providers.

(c) Current laws may not adequately protect privacy, or may impose obstacles to the exchange of vital health information, as required by the State Cooperative Grant Agreement for health information exchange and other federal health information funding programs.

(d) It is the intent of the Legislature to authorize the Office of Health Information Integrity within the California Health and Human Services Agency to establish and administer demonstration projects funded by federal grants and other sources. It is the intent of the Legislature that the demonstration projects do all of the following:

(1) Identify barriers to implementing health information exchanges.

(2) Test potential security and privacy policies for the safe and secure exchange of health information, including, but not limited to, issues related to access to, and storage of, individual health information.

(3) Identify and address differences between state and federal laws regarding privacy of health information.

(Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 227, Sec. 1. (AB 278) Effective January 1, 2011. Repealed as of date prescribed in Section 130282.)