1. Reports made pursuant to NRS 200.5093 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, isolation or abandonment 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,
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, isolation or abandonment 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, isolated or abandoned;
(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, isolation or abandonment 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, isolation or abandonment 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, isolation or abandonment;
(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, isolation or abandonment 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, isolation or abandonment;
(j) The older person or vulnerable person named in the report as allegedly being abused, neglected, exploited, isolated or abandoned, if that person is not legally incapacitated;
(k) An attorney appointed by a court to represent a protected person in a guardianship proceeding pursuant to NRS 159.0485, if:
(1) The protected person is an older person or vulnerable person;
(2) The identity of the person who was responsible for reporting the alleged abuse, neglect, exploitation, isolation or abandonment of the older person or vulnerable person to the public agency is protected; and
(3) The attorney of the protected person is not the person suspected of such abuse, neglect, exploitation, isolation or abandonment; or
(l) The State Guardianship Compliance Office created by NRS 159.341.
4. If the person who is reported to have abused, neglected, exploited, isolated or abandoned an older person or a vulnerable person is the holder of a license or certificate issued pursuant to chapters 449, 630 to 641B, inclusive, 653 or 654 of NRS, the information contained in the report must be submitted to the board that issued the license.
5. If data or information concerning the reports and investigations of the abuse, neglect, exploitation, isolation or abandonment of an older person or a vulnerable person is made available pursuant to paragraph (b) or (j) of subsection 3 or subsection 4, the name and any other identifying information of the person who made the report must be redacted before the data or information is made available.
(Added to NRS by 1981, 1335; A 1983, 1654; 1995, 2252; 1997, 1351; 2003, 906; 2005, 1111; 2011, 1096, 1518; 2015, 810; 2019, 2716, 3488, effective January 1, 2020)