(1) The department recommends that each primary health care provider or physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner who treats a patient in an inpatient or outpatient setting offer a person born between the years of 1945 and 1965 a hepatitis C screening test or hepatitis C diagnostic test unless the health care provider providing such services reasonably believes that:

(a) The patient is being treated for a life-threatening emergency;

(b) The patient has previously been offered or has been the subject of a hepatitis C screening; or

(c) The patient lacks capacity to consent to a hepatitis C screening test.

(2) If a patient accepts the offer of a hepatitis C screening test and the screening test is reactive, the health care provider may either offer the patient follow-up health care or refer the individual to a health care provider who can provide follow-up health care, including a hepatitis C diagnostic test.

(3) The health care provider shall make the offer of a hepatitis C screening to the patient in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner, as determined by rules promulgated by the department.

(4) Nothing in this section affects the scope of practice of a health care provider or diminishes any authority or legal or professional obligation of a health care provider to offer a hepatitis C screening test or hepatitis C diagnostic test or to provide services or care for the subject of a hepatitis C screening test or hepatitis C diagnostic test.

(5) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Hepatitis C diagnostic test" means a laboratory test or tests that detect the presence of hepatitis C virus in the blood and provide confirmation of whether the patient has a hepatitis C infection.

(b) "Hepatitis C screening test" means a federal food and drug administration-approved rapid point of care test or other food and drug administration-approved tests that detect the presence of hepatitis C virus antibodies in the blood.