Mohana Ravindranath, Arthur Allen, and Darius Tahir report:
Groups lobbying to make it easier for doctors to share a patient’s substance abuse treatment records may have to take the measure up again next year. They appear to have lost the battle to include it in the final opioids package, which could drop as early as tonight, our colleagues Darius Tahir and Brianna Ehley report. The federal law known as 42 CFR Part 2 prevents the sharing of the sensitive treatment records without a patient’s explicit consent. While the House had approved changes in its original legislation, H.R. 6082 (115), they didn’t make it into the Senate version and were ultimately dropped in negotiations. (The full story for Pros is here.)
While many health care groups said the changes were needed to make it easier for providers to have more information about their patients, privacy groups worried about expanding access to the sensitive data.
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