The Department of Health and Human Services has finalized regulations to better align federal requirements for the confidentiality of substance use disorder records
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HHS Secretary Alex Azar says proposed HIPAA privacy rule changes aim to break down barriers in care coordination.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday issued a long-awaited proposed rule that would modify the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
Among the changes proposed are:
Dropping the requirement for healthcare entities to obtain and retain for six years patients’ signed acknowledgements of notices of privacy practices;
Reducing the time from 30 days to 15 days for covered entities to fulfill patient requests for receiving copies of their health information;
Allowing more flexibility to healthcare providers in making decisions to share patient information – such as about opioid abuse or COVID-19 treatment - with family members in situations involving “serious and foreseeable” threats, rather than the current “serious and imminent” threat standard.