June 25, 2018
The Overdose Avoidance and Patient Security Act – H.R. 6082 – targets to reduce limitations on the sharing of health files of patients with addictions, lining up 42 CFR Part 2 – Secrecy of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records – with HIPAA.
Presently, 42 CFR Part 2 only allows the revelation of health files of patients with substance abuse ailment without written approval to medical workforce in emergency conditions, to specified people for research and program assessments, or if needed to do so by way of a court order.
Under existing rules, a special release form should be initialed by a patient approving the insertion of substance abuse disorder information in their medical record.
Avoiding physicians from having access to a patient’s complete medical history implies decisions might be taken without complete understanding of their possible results. If details of substance abuse disorder can be retrieved, physicians will be able to make more informed decisions which will assist them to safely and effectively cure patients.
The Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Law let the health files of substance abuse disorder patients to be revealed without written approval from patients for the purposes of payment, cure, and healthcare operations, aligning with the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
Moreover, the criminal fines for breaches involving substance abuse disorder files would align with the fine structure of HIPAA and would not be handled separately.
Privacy safeguards are also increased for patients, which will ban the use of SUD information in illegal and civil prosecution cases, will protect against discrimination by barring the sharing of substance abuse discover information with companies and landowners, and would need notices to be released in the event of the break of that information in line with the necessities of the HITECT Law.
The House approved the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act with a vote of 357-57. The Law will now go to the Senate chamber for deliberation.
