A bill that would expand the authority of health care providers to test for HIV and other blood-borne and airborne diseases without the patient's consent cleared the Senate on Wednesday.
The state's HIV Shield Law, passed in 1991 and amended in 1999, allows a patient to be tested without consent when a health care worker has "direct skin or mucous membrane contact with the blood or bodily fluids" in a way that could transmit HIV.
Another law passed in 2009 allows for similar testing for any life-threatening airborne or blood-borne disease, including tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C.
[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]
House Bill 1365 by Rep. Michelle Gray, R-Melbourne, would allow for such involuntary testing when law enforcement officers and other emergency workers are the ones at risk of exposure. The Senate's 34-0 vote sent the bill back to the House to consider a Senate-approved amendment.
-- Michael R. Wickline