For decades, health care providers that are subject to both HIPAA and to the specialized Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (“SUD”) Patient Records regulations (known as “Part 2”) have had to navigate differing, and at times divergent, privacy and confidentiality rules applicable to patient health information and patient records. These disparate privacy rules have, for many providers, served as a hindrance to the information sharing necessary to facilitate coordinated care. On December 2, 2022, OCR and SAMHSA released long-awaited proposed changes to Part 2 through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) to better harmonize HIPAA and Part 2.
Click here to read Ropes and Gray’s Client Alert on the proposed changes.