(a) The California Health and Human Services Agency, through the office, may establish and administer demonstration projects to evaluate potential solutions to facilitate health information exchange that promote quality of care, respect the privacy and security of personal health information, and enhance the trust of the stakeholders.

(b) Health care entities or governmental authorities, that receive, share, exchange, or use a California resident’s medical information, may submit an application with the office to be approved as demonstration project participants. Upon receiving an application, the office shall do both of the following:

(1) Assist applicants in soliciting federal funds for the demonstration projects.

(2) Work with applicants to define the scope of the demonstration project.

(c) The director may approve demonstration projects to test for, but not limited to, any of the following areas:

(1) Policies and practices related to patient consent, informing, and notification.

(2) New technologies and applications that enable the transmission of protected health information, while increasing privacy protections by ensuring only required health data is transmitted for purposes and uses consistent with state and federal law.

(3) Implementation issues, if any, encountered by small solo health care providers as a result of exchanging electronic health information.

(d) The selection of demonstration projects shall be based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:

(1) Areas critical to building consumer trust and confidence in the health information exchange system.

(2) Projects that help support the exchange of information critical to meeting the federal meaningful use provisions.

(3) Areas recommended by the California health information exchange consumer and industry stakeholder advisory process.

(e) The office shall engage with health care stakeholders to evaluate issues identified by the demonstration projects, comment upon proposed regulations, and discuss solutions for health information exchange.

(f) The office may annually approve up to four projects, as demonstration projects.

(g) The office shall work collaboratively with approved demonstration project participants to identify a set of common data elements that will be used to collect, analyze, and measure performance.

(h) The office shall receive reports from the demonstration project participants on the outcome of the demonstration projects no later than 60 business days after the end of the demonstration project.

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