Confidentiality

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), finalized modifications to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records regulations at 42 CFR part 2 (“Part 2”), which protect the privacy of patients’ SUD treatment records.

This week, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, through the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced proposed changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records under 42 CFR part 2 (“Part 2”), which protects patient privacy and records concerning treatment related to substance use challenges from unauthorized disclosures.

This webinar provided an overview of the statute and regulations of 42 CFR, Part 2, the federal regulations for confidentiality of substance use records. It provided a brief history of the statute and its original purpose, and the three major revisions to the regulations. It covered the changes to the statute that were made as part of the CARES Act last year and its impact on providers. It covered the issue of applicability of the regulations as they have evolved over the three major revisions.