REPORTING PROCEDURES.

(a) The executive commissioner shall prescribe the form and method of reporting under this chapter by electronic data transmission, through a health information exchange as defined by Section 182.151 if requested and authorized by the person required to report, or by other means.

(b) The executive commissioner may require the reports to contain any information relating to a case that is necessary for the purposes of this chapter, including:

(1) the patient's name, address, age, sex, race, and occupation;

(2) the date of onset of the disease or condition;

(3) the probable source of infection; and

(4) the name of the attending physician or dentist.

(b-1) In this subsection, "cycle threshold value" means for a communicable disease test the number of thermal cycles required for the fluorescent signal to exceed that of the background and cross the threshold for a positive test. The executive commissioner shall require the reports of polymerase chain reaction tests from clinical or hospital laboratories to contain the cycle threshold values and their reference ranges.

(c) The commissioner may authorize an alternate routing of information in particular cases if the commissioner determines that the reporting procedure would cause the information to be unduly delayed.

(d) For a case of acquired immune deficiency syndrome or human immunodeficiency virus infection, the executive commissioner shall require the reports to contain:

(1) the information described by Subsection (b); and

(2) the patient's ethnicity, national origin, and city and county of residence.