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

As skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies work to assess and admit new residents and patients, they often face the challenge of obtaining all of the information about the individual to make a proper admission assessment and to begin to build a care plan designed specifically for the individual. When a patient is... 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

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

Recently, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) into law. Among many changes is a significant modification to the federal confidentiality protections currently afforded substance use disorder (“SUD”) records pursuant to the Public Health Services Act at 42 U.S.C. 290dd-2 (“PHS Act”). Most notable, the amendments to the... READ MORE