Decades-old regulations currently prohibit information about a patient's drug or alcohol treatment to be shared without the patient consenting to each disclosure. Now, federal officials are looking to relax these laws to enable more robust health information exchange, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Federal officials at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration see these regulations as both antiquated and incompatible with current health information exchange technology, according to the report. Because of the difficultly of getting patient consent for each transfer, many HIEs are just leaving out information about substance abuse treatment, which is often crucial information for physicians creating a care plan.
SAMHSA will hold listening sessions to gauge public opinion on a proposal that would allow patients to consent to all future disclosures through an HIE to all providers a patient visits, according to the report.
Supporters of the proposal say the looser restrictions will allow providers to access all of a patient's relevant clinical information, while opponents believe knowing their substance abuse treatment information will be more widely shared may keep people from seeking help, according to the report.
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