N.Y. Public Health Law § 2780 (2026)

§ 2780. Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the following meanings:
  1. "AIDS" means acquired immune deficiency syndrome, as may be defined
from time to time by the centers for disease control of the United
States public health service.
  2. "HIV infection" means infection with the human immunodeficiency
virus or any other related virus identified as a probable causative
agent of AIDS.
  3. "HIV related illness" means any illness that may result from or may
be associated with HIV infection.
  4. "HIV related test or HIV related testing" means any laboratory
test, tests or series of tests approved for the diagnosis of HIV.
  4-a. "Rapid HIV test or testing" means any laboratory screening test
or tests approved for detecting antibodies to HIV, that produce results
in sixty minutes or less, and encompasses a confirmatory HIV related
test if the screening test is reactive.
  5. "Capacity to consent" means an individual's ability, determined
without regard to the individual's age, to understand and appreciate the
nature and consequences of a proposed health care service, treatment, or
procedure, or of a proposed disclosure of confidential HIV related
information, as the case may be, and to make an informed decision
concerning the service, treatment, procedure or disclosure.
  6. "Protected individual" means a person who is the subject of an HIV
related test or who has been diagnosed as having HIV infection, AIDS or
HIV related illness.
  7. "Confidential HIV related information" means any information, in
the possession of a person who provides one or more health or social
services or who obtains the information pursuant to a release of
confidential HIV related information, concerning whether an individual
has been the subject of an HIV related test, or has HIV infection, HIV
related illness or AIDS, or information which identifies or reasonably
could identify an individual as having one or more of such conditions,
including information pertaining to such individual's contacts.
  8. "Health or social service" means any public or private care,
treatment, clinical laboratory test, counseling or educational service
for adults or children, and acute, chronic, custodial, residential,
outpatient, home or other health care provided pursuant to this chapter
or the social services law; public assistance or care as defined in
article one of the social services law; employment-related services,
housing services, foster care, shelter, protective services, day care,
or preventive services provided pursuant to the social services law;
services for the mentally disabled as defined in article one of the
mental hygiene law; probation services, provided pursuant to articles
twelve and twelve-A of the executive law; parole services, provided
pursuant to article eight of the correction law; corrections and
community supervision, provided pursuant to the correction law;
detention and rehabilitative services provided pursuant to article
nineteen-G of the executive law; and the activities of the health care
worker HIV/HBV advisory panel pursuant to article twenty-seven-DD of
this chapter.
  9. "Release of confidential HIV related information" means a written
authorization for disclosure of confidential HIV related information
which is signed by the protected individual, or if the protected
individual lacks capacity to consent, a person authorized pursuant to
law to consent to health care for the individual. Such release shall be
dated and shall specify to whom disclosure is authorized, the purpose
for such disclosure and the time period during which the release is to
be effective. A general authorization for the release of medical or
other information shall not be construed as a release of confidential
HIV related information, unless such authorization specifically
indicates its dual purpose as a general authorization and an
authorization for the release of confidential HIV related information
and complies with the requirements of this subdivision.
  10. "Contact" means an identified spouse or sex partner of the
protected individual, a person identified as having shared hypodermic
needles or syringes with the protected individual or a person who the
protected individual may have exposed to HIV under circumstances that
present a risk of transmission of HIV, as determined by the
commissioner.
  11. "Person" includes any natural person, partnership, association,
joint venture, trust, public or private corporation, or state or local
government agency.
  12. "Health facility" means a hospital as defined in section two
thousand eight hundred one of this chapter, blood bank, blood center,
sperm bank, organ or tissue bank, clinical laboratory, or facility
providing care or treatment to persons with a mental disability as
defined in article one of the mental hygiene law.
  13. "Health care provider" means any physician, nurse, provider of
services for the mentally disabled as defined in article one of the
mental hygiene law, or other person involved in providing medical,
nursing, counseling, or other health care or mental health service,
including those associated with, or under contract to, a health
maintenance organization or medical services plan.
  14. "Child" means any protected individual actually or apparently
under eighteen years of age.
  15. "Authorized agency" means any agency defined by section three
hundred seventy-one of the social services law and, for the purposes of
this article, shall include such corporations incorporated or organized
under the laws of the state as may be specifically authorized by their
certificates of incorporation to receive children for the purposes of
adoption or foster care.
  16. "Insurance institution" means any corporation, association,
partnership, reciprocal exchange, interinsurer, fraternal benefits
society, agent, broker or other entity including, but not limited to,
any health maintenance organization, medical service plan, or hospital
plan which: (a) is engaged in the business of insurance; (b) provides
health services coverage plans; or (c) provides benefits under,
administers, or provides services for, an employee welfare benefit plan
as defined in 29 U.S.C. 1002(1).
  17. "Insurance support organization" means any person who regularly
engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or
collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose of
providing the information to an insurance institution for insurance
transactions, including: (a) the furnishing of consumer reports or
investigative consumer reports to an insurance instititution for use in
connection with an insurance transaction; or (b) the collection of
personal information from insurance institutions or other insurance
support organizations for the purpose of detecting or preventing fraud,
material misrepresentation, or material non-disclosure in connection
with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity. The following
persons shall not be considered "insurance-support organizations" for
the purposes of this article: government institutions, insurance
institutions, health facilities and health care providers.