                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION OBTAINED DURING AN INVESTIGATION OR DISCIPLINARY
PROCEEDING; PENALTY (§ 54.1-2400.2)

A. Any reports, information or records received and maintained by the Department
of Health Professions or any health regulatory board in connection with possible
disciplinary proceedings, including any material received or developed by a
board during an investigation or proceeding, shall be strictly confidential. The
Department of Health Professions or a board may only disclose such confidential
information:

   1. In a disciplinary proceeding before a board or in any subsequent trial or
   appeal of an action or order, or to the respondent in entering into a
   confidential consent agreement under &#xA7; 54.1-2400;

   2. To regulatory authorities concerned with granting, limiting or denying
   licenses, certificates or registrations to practice a health profession,
   including the coordinated licensure information system as defined in &#xA7;
   54.1-3040.2 and the data system as set forth in &#xA7; 54.1-3492;

   3. To the Virginia Department of Education or the State Council of Higher
   Education for Virginia, if such information relates to nursing or nurse aide
   education programs regulated by the Board of Nursing;

   4. To hospital committees concerned with granting, limiting or denying
   hospital privileges if a final determination regarding a violation has been
   made;

   5. Pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction for good cause
   arising from extraordinary circumstances being shown;

   6. To qualified personnel for bona fide research or educational purposes, if
   personally identifiable information relating to any person is first deleted.
   Such release shall be made pursuant to a written agreement to ensure
   compliance with this section; or

   7. To the Health Practitioners&#8217; Monitoring Program within the Department
   of Health Professions in connection with health practitioners who apply to or
   participate in the Program.

B. In no event shall confidential information received, maintained or developed
by the Department of Health Professions or any board, or disclosed by the
Department of Health Professions or a board to others, pursuant to this section,
be available for discovery or court subpoena or introduced into evidence in any
civil action. This section shall not, however, be construed to inhibit an
investigation or prosecution under Article 1 (&#xA7; 18.2-247 et seq.) of
Chapter 7 of Title 18.2.

C. Any claim of a physician-patient or practitioner-patient privilege shall not
prevail in any investigation or proceeding by any health regulatory board acting
within the scope of its authority. The disclosure, however, of any information
pursuant to this provision shall not be deemed a waiver of such privilege in any
other proceeding.

D. This section shall not prohibit the Director of the Department of Health
Professions, after consultation with the relevant health regulatory board
president or his designee, from disclosing to the Attorney General, or the
appropriate attorney for the Commonwealth, investigatory information which
indicates a possible violation of any provision of criminal law, including the
laws relating to the manufacture, distribution, dispensing, prescribing or
administration of drugs, other than drugs classified as Schedule VI drugs and
devices, by any individual regulated by any health regulatory board.

E. This section shall not prohibit the Director of the Department of Health
Professions from disclosing matters listed in subdivision A 1, 2, or 3 of &#xA7;
54.1-2909; from making the reports of aggregate information and summaries
required by &#xA7; 54.1-2400.3; or from disclosing the information required to
be made available to the public pursuant to &#xA7; 54.1-2910.1.

F. This section shall not prohibit the Director of the Department of Health
Professions, following consultation with the relevant health regulatory board
president or his designee, from disclosing information about a suspected
violation of state or federal law or regulation to other agencies within the
Health and Human Resources Secretariat or to state or federal law-enforcement
agencies having jurisdiction over the suspected violation or requesting an
inspection or investigation of a licensee by such state or federal agency when
the Director has reason to believe that a possible violation of state or federal
law has occurred. Such disclosure shall not exceed the minimum information
necessary to permit the state or federal agency having jurisdiction over the
suspected violation of state or federal law to conduct an inspection or
investigation. Disclosures by the Director pursuant to this subsection shall not
be limited to requests for inspections or investigations of licensees. Nothing
in this subsection shall require the Director to make any disclosure. Nothing in
this section shall permit any agency to which the Director makes a disclosure
pursuant to this section to re-disclose any information, reports, records, or
materials received from the Department.

G. Whenever a complaint or report has been filed about a person licensed,
certified, or registered by a health regulatory board, the source and the
subject of a complaint or report shall be provided information about the
investigative and disciplinary procedures at the Department of Health
Professions. Prior to interviewing a licensee who is the subject of a complaint
or report, or at the time that the licensee is first notified in writing of the
complaint or report, whichever shall occur first, the licensee shall be provided
with a copy of the complaint or report and any records or supporting
documentation, unless such provision would materially obstruct a criminal or
regulatory investigation. If the relevant board concludes that a disciplinary
proceeding will not be instituted, the board may send an advisory letter to the
person who was the subject of the complaint or report. The relevant board may
also inform the source of the complaint or report (i) that an investigation has
been conducted, (ii) that the matter was concluded without a disciplinary
proceeding, (iii) of the process the board followed in making its determination,
and (iv), if appropriate, that an advisory letter from the board has been
communicated to the person who was the subject of the complaint or report. In
providing such information, the board shall inform the source of the complaint
or report that he is subject to the requirements of this section relating to
confidentiality and discovery.

H. Orders and notices of the health regulatory boards relating to disciplinary
actions, other than confidential exhibits described in subsection K, shall be
disclosed. Information on the date and location of any disciplinary proceeding,
allegations against the respondent, and the list of statutes and regulations the
respondent is alleged to have violated shall be provided to the source of the
complaint or report by the relevant board prior to the proceeding. The source
shall be notified of the disposition of a disciplinary case.

I. This section shall not prohibit investigative staff authorized under &#xA7;
54.1-2506 or investigative staff of any other agency to which disclosure of
information about a suspected violation of state or federal law or regulation is
authorized by subsection F from interviewing fact witnesses, disclosing to fact
witnesses the identity of the subject of the complaint or report, or reviewing
with fact witnesses any portion of records or other supporting documentation
necessary to refresh the fact witnesses&#8217; recollection.

J. Any person found guilty of the unlawful disclosure of confidential
information possessed by a health regulatory board shall be guilty of a Class 1
misdemeanor.

K. In disciplinary actions in which a practitioner is or may be unable to
practice with reasonable skill and safety to patients and the public because of
a mental or physical disability, a health regulatory board shall consider
whether to disclose and may decide not to disclose in its notice or order the
practitioner&#8217;s health records, as defined in &#xA7; 32.1-127.1:03, or his
health services, as defined in &#xA7; 32.1-127.1:03. Such information may be
considered by the relevant board in a closed hearing in accordance with
subdivision A 16 of &#xA7; 2.2-3711 and included in a confidential exhibit to a
notice or order. The public notice or order shall identify, if known, the
practitioner&#8217;s mental or physical disability that is the basis for its
determination. In the event that the relevant board, in its discretion,
determines that this subsection should apply, information contained in the
confidential exhibit shall remain part of the confidential record before the
relevant board and is subject to court review under the Administrative Process
Act (&#xA7; 2.2-4000 et seq.) and to release in accordance with this section.

HISTORY: 1997, c. 698; 1998, c. 744; 1999, c. 888; 2003, cc. 753, 762; 2004, c.
49; 2006, cc. 155, 184; 2007, c. 395; 2009, cc. 342, 472; 2015, c. 114; 2016, c.
222; 2017, c. 616; 2019, cc. 300, 418, 663.