AHA, others urge Congress to reform substance use privacy laws

As legislation to address the opioid crisis moved to the floor, AHA and others yesterday urged House leaders to align privacy laws governing substance use disorder patient records with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act rules that allow the use and disclosure of patient information for treatment, payment and health care operations. “Doing so would improve patient care by ensuring that providers and organizations that have a direct treatment relationship with a patient have access to his or her complete medical record,” the organizations wrote. “Without access to a complete record, providers cannot properly treat the whole person and may, unknowingly, endanger a person’s recovery and his or her life. For example, a medical doctor in primary care may not know that he or she is prescribing pain medication to someone with a history of addiction.” The groups said reforming these “Part 2” privacy laws is particularly important as Congress works to expand access to Medication-Assisted Treatment, noting the “significant risk for drug interactions.” The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s proposed revisions to the Part 2 regulation do not eliminate the barriers to information sharing that are impeding care coordination and better population health, AHA told the agency in comments submitted last month, urging the agency to work with Congress to eliminate any statutory barriers to full alignment with the HIPAA requirements.