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HF 4478

Disclosure limitations on personnel data for employees of secure treatment facilities and treatment facilities modified.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Luke Frederick

Restricts disclosure of specific staff data and allows facility-led limits on patient correspondence, visits, and rights to protect staff from harassment while balancing patient ne

Joint rule 2.03, Deadlines, re-referred to Rules and Legislative Administration
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Bill Summary · HF 4478

Summary of HF 4478 (2025-2026) – Minnesota

Baseline: This bill modifies how certain personnel data of employees at secure treatment facilities, treatment facilities, state-operated treatment programs, and related entities can be disclosed. It also clarifies related patient rights provisions and makes conforming changes in several statutes.

1) Purpose and Intent

  • To restrict disclosure of specific personnel data of employees who work in secure treatment facilities, treatment programs, state correctional facilities, and employees of the Department of Corrections involved in community offender supervision.
  • The aim is to protect employees from harassment, intimidation, or assault by patients, clients, corrections inmates, or others connected to facility administrators, by limiting what information can be disclosed.

2) Key Provisions and Changes

A. Disclosure limitations on personnel data (Section 1)

  • Amends Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 13.43, subdivision 5a, to prohibit disclosure of:
    • The place where an employee’s previous education or training occurred.
    • The place of prior employment.
    • Payroll timesheets or similar data that could reveal future work assignments, home address or telephone number, location of an employee during nonwork hours, or the location of an employee’s immediate family.
  • The restricted data relate to employees of:
    • Secure treatment facilities (as defined in statute)
    • Treatment programs
    • State correctional facilities
    • Department of Corrections personnel directly involved in community offender supervision
  • Effective date: The day after final enactment; applies to data requests pending on or received after that date.

B. Patient rights related to correspondence, visits, and calls (Sections 2 and 3)

  • Sec. 2 (253B.03, subd. 2 – Correspondence)
    • Patients retain the right to correspondence without censorship, subject to treatment facility policy and 253B.25.
    • Restrictions may be imposed for medical welfare reasons; determinations may be reviewed (in state-operated programs) by the executive board.
    • Any limitations must be documented in the patient’s clinical record.
  • Sec. 3 (253B.03, subd. 3 – Visitors and phone calls)
    • Patients have the right to receive visitors and make phone calls, subject to facility rules and medical welfare considerations.
    • Restrictions must be documented in the patient’s clinical record.
  • Effective date for these sections: The day after final enactment.

C. General provision on restricting access to information (Section 4)

  • Adds/clarifies that the head of a treatment facility or state-operated program may restrict patient access to correspondence and telephone calls if such access could be used to harass, intimidate, or assault employees.
  • Effective date: The day after final enactment.

D. Rights of individuals in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (Section 5)

  • Allows the executive board to limit statutorily described rights for persons committed to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, or with the board’s consent, to the extent necessary to maintain a therapeutic environment, facility security, or safety.
  • Protection of staff from harassment, intimidation, or assault is a basis for limiting these rights.
  • Effective date: The day after final enactment.

3) Who Is Affected

  • Employees of:
    • Secure treatment facilities
    • Treatment programs
    • State correctional facilities
    • Department of Corrections staff involved in community supervision
  • Patients and clients at those facilities
  • State-operated treatment programs and related executive boards
  • Individuals under the Minnesota Sex Offender Program

4) Procedural and Timeline Aspects

  • Introduction and committee path:
    • Introduced and referred to the House Human Services Finance and Policy Committee (3/18/2026)
    • Re-referred to Judiciary Finance and Civil Law (3/23/2026)
    • Re-referred to Rules and Legislative Administration (4/16/2026)
  • Effective dates:
    • Section 1 and related data-disclosure provisions: effective the day after final enactment, applying to requests received after that date.
    • Sections 2, 3, and 4 (patient rights and access provisions) and Section 5 (Sex Offender Program rights): effective the day after final enactment.

5) Practical Impact

  • Increases privacy protections for personnel data by restricting disclosures that could reveal sensitive information (work locations, home addresses/phones, or family locations).
  • Strengthens ability of treatment facilities to shield staff from harassment risks while balancing patient rights to correspondence, visits, and calls, with documented clinical rationale.
  • Provides targeted authority for restricting certain rights in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program to maintain safety and therapeutic environment.

If you’d like, I can provide a side-by-side comparison with current law or a plain-language briefing for non-lawyer audiences.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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