Articles and Blogs

On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) issued a Final Rule that modified the “Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records” regulated by 42 CFR Part 2 (“Part 2”). The Final Rule was published... READ MORE

On December 2, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) released a proposed rule modifying the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations at 42 CFR Part 2 (“Part 2”). The goal of the proposed rule is to implement changes necessary to conform... READ MORE

On December 14, 2020, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) published a final rule amending the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations at 42 CFR part 2 (“Part 2”), effective January 13, 2021 (“Final Rule”). This Final Rule clarifies when a court can authorize disclosures of confidential communications made... READ MORE

Residential treatment facilities that provide substance use disorder (“SUD”) or other sensitive health services, such as mental health, behavioral health or developmental disability diagnosis and treatment, are again faced with a dilemma this year: do they provide patient information to the U.S. Census Bureau (the “Bureau”) enumerators to comply with the 2020 Census group... READ MORE

On August 26, 2019, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) issued two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records at Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2 (“Part 2”). Part 2 is a federal privacy law that protects substance... READ MORE