Federal Confidentiality Requirements 42 CFR Part 2

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§2.22 Notice to patients of federal confidentiality requirements.

(a) Notice required. At the time of admission to a part 2 program or, in the case that a patient does not have capacity upon admission to understand his or her medical status, as soon thereafter as the patient attains such capacity, each part 2 program shall:

  1. Communicate to the patient that federal law and regulations protect the confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records; and
  2. Give to the patient a summary in writing of the federal law and regulations.

(b) Required elements of written summary. The written summary of the federal law and regulations must include:

  1. A general description of the limited circumstances under which a part 2 program may acknowledge that an individual is present or disclose outside the part 2 program information identifying a patient as having or having had a substance use disorder;
  2. A statement that violation of the federal law and regulations by a part 2 program is a crime and that suspected violations may be reported to appropriate authorities consistent with §2.4, along with contact information;
  3. A statement that information related to a patient's commission of a crime on the premises of the part 2 program or against personnel of the part 2 program is not protected;
  4. A statement that reports of suspected child abuse and neglect made under state law to appropriate state or local authorities are not protected; and
  5. A citation to the federal law and regulations.

(c) Program options. The part 2 program must devise a notice to comply with the requirement to provide the patient with a summary in writing of the federal law and regulations. In this written summary, the part 2 program also may include information concerning state law and any of the part 2 program's policies that are not inconsistent with state and federal law on the subject of confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records.

§2.32 Prohibition on re-disclosure.

(a) Notice to accompany disclosure. Each disclosure made with the patient's written consent must be accompanied by one of the following written statements:

  1. This information has been disclosed to you from records protected by federal confidentiality rules (42 CFR part 2). The federal rules prohibit you from making any further disclosure of information in this record that identifies a patient as having or having had a substance use disorder either directly, by reference to publicly available information, or through verification of such identification by another person unless further disclosure is expressly permitted by the written consent of the individual whose information is being disclosed or as otherwise permitted by 42 CFR part 2. A general authorization for the release of medical or other information is NOT sufficient for this purpose (see §2.31). The federal rules restrict any use of the information to investigate or prosecute with regard to a crime any patient with a substance use disorder, except as provided at §§2.12(c)(5) and 2.65; or
  2. 42 CFR part 2 prohibits unauthorized disclosure of these records.