Senate Bill 1012 - Patient Right to Visitation

• Establishes a new Chapter 8 in Title 39, Idaho Code, guaranteeing patients and residents at health care facilities the right to visitation by immediate family members and health care agents for at least 2 hours daily.

• Requires facilities to establish visitation policies within 30 days that include infection control protocols, limits visitors to no fewer than 4 people at a time, and permit consensual physical contact between visitors and patients/residents.

• Prohibits facilities from basing visitation restrictions on visitor vaccination or immunization status and mandates in-person visitation during end-of-life situations, childbirth, medical decisions, and other specified circumstances.

• Requires visitation by immediate family members or health care agents cannot be suspended based on state of emergency declarations by federal, state, or local government.

• Mandates facilities submit visitation policies to the Department of Health and Welfare within 60 days, publish policies on their websites, and allows the department to establish a 24-hour complaint hotline and pursue administrative penalties for non-compliance.

• Effective date: July 1, 2023.