Summary: This project aims to bring much-needed clarity regarding health privacy laws to targeted states across the country through training that addresses common questions about the laws and their application.
Opportunity: Clarifying health privacy protections and practices for appropriately sharing patient information is critical for improving patients’ trust in health care providers. Multiple state and federal privacy laws provide protections for mental health and substance use disorder treatment records while also allowing treatment providers to share these records with other healthcare providers and with patients’ friends, families, and caregivers. In the face of these overlapping laws, it can be difficult for patients, their families, and health professionals to understand what information can be shared, with whom, and when.
Initiative: CAI’s Health Privacy Laws Training Project is an initiative of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s State Opioid Response Network (ORN). CAI helps statewide networks address common questions about health privacy laws and how they are applied in practice. Trainings are available to states that need state-based support for their networks of providers. Statewide trainings are customized to meet the needs of states and their specific target audiences and stakeholders. Central to our training strategy is ensuring that we are responsive to the context and needs of our audiences. In order to achieve this, CAI works individually with each requesting organization to tailor an interactive health privacy law training that addresses the specific needs and context of the participants.
Impact: Federal privacy regulations protect patient privacy, give healthcare providers flexibility to provide the best possible treatment, and help clarify the boundaries in protecting and sharing patient information. Working with statewide agencies to promote and facilitate trainings, this program seeks to reach as many professionals as possible who provide substance use disorder and mental health services to increase understanding and application of federal health privacy laws on the job and in practice.
Project funder and key partners: This program is part of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s State Opioid Response Network Technical Assistance grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Project contact: Scott Wells, Privacy Law Compliance Senior Associate: ornhealth.contact@dev.caiglobal.org.