Screening by health care providers

§ 1370-c. Screening by health care providers. 1. The department is authorized to promulgate regulations establishing the means by which and the intervals at which children and pregnant women shall be screened for elevated lead levels. The department is also authorized to require screening for lead poisoning in other high risk groups.

2. Every physician or other authorized practitioner who provides medical care to children or pregnant women, shall screen children or refer them for screening for elevated lead levels at the intervals and using the methods specified in such regulations. Every licensed, registered or approved health care facility serving children including but not limited to hospitals, clinics and health maintenance organizations, shall ensure, by providing screenings or by referring for screenings, that their patients receive screening for lead at the intervals and using the methods specified in such regulations.

2-a. Every primary health care provider shall conduct a lead exposure risk assessment questionnaire provided by the department for each child who is at least six months of age and continuing until six years of age at each routine well-child visit, or at least annually if a child has not had routine well-child visits.

3. The health practitioner who screens any child for lead shall give a certificate of screening to the parent or guardian of the child.

4. The department shall establish a separate level of payment, subject to the approval of the director of the budget, for payments made by governmental agencies for screenings performed pursuant to this section by hospitals, as defined in section twenty-eight hundred one of this chapter.