NRS200.5095. Reports and records confidential; permissible or required disclosure; penalty.

      1.  Reports made pursuant to NRS 200.5093, 200.50935 and 200.5094, and records and investigations relating to those reports, are confidential.

      2.  A person, law enforcement agency or public or private agency, institution or facility who willfully releases data or information concerning the reports and investigation of the abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation of older persons or vulnerable persons, except:

      (a) Pursuant to a criminal prosecution;

      (b) Pursuant to NRS 200.50982; or

      (c) To persons or agencies enumerated in subsection 3,

Ê is guilty of a misdemeanor.

      3.  Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2 and NRS 200.50982, data or information concerning the reports and investigations of the abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation of an older person or a vulnerable person is available only to:

      (a) A physician who is providing care to an older person or a vulnerable person who may have been abused, neglected, exploited or isolated;

      (b) An agency responsible for or authorized to undertake the care, treatment and supervision of the older person or vulnerable person;

      (c) A district attorney or other law enforcement official who requires the information in connection with an investigation of the abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation of the older person or vulnerable person;

      (d) A court which has determined, in camera, that public disclosure of such information is necessary for the determination of an issue before it;

      (e) A person engaged in bona fide research, but the identity of the subjects of the report must remain confidential;

      (f) A grand jury upon its determination that access to such records is necessary in the conduct of its official business;

      (g) Any comparable authorized person or agency in another jurisdiction;

      (h) A legal guardian of the older person or vulnerable person, if the identity of the person who was responsible for reporting the alleged abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation of the older person or vulnerable person to the public agency is protected, and the legal guardian of the older person or vulnerable person is not the person suspected of such abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation;

      (i) If the older person or vulnerable person is deceased, the executor or administrator of his or her estate, if the identity of the person who was responsible for reporting the alleged abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation of the older person or vulnerable person to the public agency is protected, and the executor or administrator is not the person suspected of such abuse, neglect, exploitation or isolation; or

      (j) The older person or vulnerable person named in the report as allegedly being abused, neglected, exploited or isolated, if that person is not legally incompetent.

      4.  If the person who is reported to have abused, neglected, exploited or isolated an older person or a vulnerable person is the holder of a license or certificate issued pursuant to chapters 449, 630 to 641B, inclusive, or 654 of NRS, the information contained in the report must be submitted to the board that issued the license.

      (Added to NRS by 1981, 1335; A 1983, 1654; 1995, 2252; 1997, 1351; 2003, 906; 2005, 1111; 2011, 1096, 1518)