AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DELAWARE HEALTH INFORMATION NETWORK CHAPTER.

This Act is the result of the 2019 report of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee's (“JLSOC”) task force under Senate Resolution No. 9 of the 150th General Assembly, which recommended amending the Delaware Health Information Network's ("DHIN") chapter to conform existing law with the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act makes technical corrections to the DHIN chapter, including the following: - Using active voice where possible. - Using the singular where appropriate since, under § 304 of Title 1, “words used in the singular include the plural.” - Converting block paragraphs into lists where possible, without changing the substance of the existing law, to enhance clarity and readability. - Replacing “party” with “person” for consistency since, under § 302 of Title 1, “person” is defined as including “corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies and joint-stock companies, as well as individuals.” This Act makes one substantive change to DHIN's chapter, in clarifying the circumstances under which the Governor may suspend or remove a member or otherwise consider a member as having resigned from the DHIN Board of Directors. Under this Act, the provision relating to suspension, removal, or resignation of a DHIN Board member is updated to be consistent with similar provisions for other boards. Section 8 of this Act does not take effect if Senate Bill No. 88 of the 151st General Assembly is enacted into law before January 1, 2023, and § 10312(3), Title 16 of Section 11 of this Act does not take effect if Senate Bill No. 119 of the 151st General Assembly is enacted before January 1, 2023. Both SB 88 and SB 119 are also the result of JLOSC’s review of DHIN, and both address substantive matters. The enactment of SB 88 or SB 119 override the technical corrections made in this Act, and the effective date clauses in Sections 15 and 16 of this Act reflect that policy. This Act takes effective the January 1 after its enactment, to accommodate the enactment of the other bills currently pending before the 151st General Assembly relating to JLOSC’s review of DHIN.