No insurer shall test for HIV or for the presence of antibodies to HIV for the purpose of determining insurability other than in accordance with the informed consent, counseling, and privacy protection provisions of this article and Article 6.6 (commencing with Section 791). Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this constitutes the exclusive requirements for counseling, informed consent, and privacy protection for that testing.

(a) An insurer that requests an applicant to take an HIV-related test shall obtain the applicant’s written informed consent for the test. Written informed consent shall include a description of the test to be performed, including its purpose, potential uses, and limitations, the meaning of its results, procedures for notifying the applicant of the results, and the right to confidential treatment of the results. Prior to the applicant’s execution of the consent, the insurer shall:

(1) Provide the applicant printed material describing HIV, its causes and symptoms, the manner in which it is spread, the test or tests used to detect HIV or the HIV antibody, and what a person can do whose test results are positive or negative.

(2) Provide the applicant a list of counseling resources available, where the applicant can obtain assistance in understanding the meaning of the test and its results. The list may be provided from publicly available information.

(b) The insurer shall notify an applicant of a positive test result by notifying the applicant’s designated physician. If the applicant tested has not given written consent authorizing a physician to receive the test results, the applicant shall be urged, at the time the applicant is informed of the positive test results, to contact a private physician, the county department of health, the State Department of Health Services, local medical societies, or alternative test sites for appropriate counseling.

(c) The commissioner shall develop and adopt standardized language for the informed consent disclosure form required by this section to be given to any applicant for life or disability income insurance who takes an HIV-related test.

(Amended by Stats. 1993, Ch. 1210, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 1994.)