MDH Posts Communicable Disease Reporting Rule
In an effort to address new and emerging communicable diseases, the Minnesota Department of Health is proposing changes to communicable disease reporting rules.
Background
Changes to the reporting rules address new and emerging communicable diseases, remove unnecessary provisions, clarify reporting conditions, and other technical changes. On May 13, the Minnesota Department of Health Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control (IDEPC) issued a Notice of Intent to Adopt Rules Without a Public Hearing regarding communicable disease reporting.
What are the proposed changes
Listed below are the noteworthy changes IPDEC listed as part of the rule.
- Clarifies the definition of “working day” to mean Monday through Friday and not including official holidays.
- Adds new diseases and syndromes that will be required to be reported.
- Adds diseases that are currently reportable under certain reporting rules to other reporting requirements for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)
- Removes some conditions from the required reporting list
- Makes changes to diseases currently reportable by
- Requires the submission of whole genome sequencing data to the laboratory.
Submitting comments
The comment period for this rule closes at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. You will need to create an account with the Office of Administrative Hearings to submit comments to the rule.
Commenters are reminded that all comments will be made available to the public. The Office of Administrative Hearings does not edit or delete comment submissions that include personal information and reserves the right to remove any comments they deem offensive, intimidating, belligerent, harassing, bullying, or that contain inappropriate or aggressive behavior without prior notification to the comment submitter.
To ensure the administrative law judge can easily read and understand your comments, it is suggested you:
- Identify the specific part or subpart of the rule you are addressing;
- Specify whether you support or oppose the proposed rule language;
- Give reasons for your views; and
- Be specific and offer language changes to solve the problems you identify.
Commenters may also attach up to three documents per comment. Allowed attachments include PDFs, spreadsheets, and word documents. Commenters should include their name and contact information on all attachments.
Resources
You can read more on each of the proposed rule’s topics below by clicking on its embedded link.
- Notice of Intent to Adopt Rules Without a Public Hearing
- Proposed rule language
- Statement of Need and Reasonableness
- Office of Administrative Hearings, Comment Location and Information
Please reach out to Mark Schulz with rulemaking questions or to Kari Everson with communicable disease reporting questions.
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