Dive Insight:
The proposed changes "
would maintain the requirement that patient consent be obtained prior to disclosing or exchanging medical records that would identify, directly or indirectly, an individual who has been diagnosed or treated for a substance-abuse disorder," reported Modern Healthcare. The change occurs where the rule would allow, without consent, "other health-related information shared by the Part 2 program to be disclosed...if permissible, under other applicable laws.”
The change, as quoted by Jim Pyles, a principal with Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville, in Modern Healthcare, would "allow a broad consent form to be signed." Some critics of the law note a general consent form would be given to individuals while at their weakest state of mental and/or physical health.
The measures signal the growing need to share health data as healthcare models become increasingly integrated and electronic infrastructure to share that data gets built out.
The agency noted in a press release announcing the changes that it "wants to ensure that patients with substance use disorders have the ability to participate in new integrated health care models without adverse consequences that could result from inappropriate disclosure of patient records."