Privacy protection for patients with substance use problems

Abstract

Many Americans with substance use problems will have opportunities to receive coordinated health care through the integration of primary care and specialty care for substance use disorders under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Sharing of patient health records among care providers is essential to realize the benefits of electronic health records. Health information exchange through meaningful use of electronic health records can improve health care safety, quality, and efficiency. Implementation of electronic health records and health information exchange presents great opportunities for health care integration, but also makes patient privacy potentially vulnerable. Privacy issues are paramount for patients with substance use problems. This paper discusses major differences between two federal privacy laws associated with health care for substance use disorders, identifies health care problems created by privacy policies, and describes potential solutions to these problems through technology innovation and policy improvement.

Keywords:

• substance abuse
• patient privacy
• electronic health records
• health information exchange

Disclosures

BT and SS are employees of the Center for the Clinical Trials Network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health, the funding agency for the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the US government. LLH has no disclosures to report.