Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville Principal and Co-Founder Jim Pyles was quoted in Modern Healthcare regarding the ramifications of the proposed rule. Read the excerpt from the article below.
The changes would allow a broad general consent form to be signed, said Jim Pyles, a principal with Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville, and an expert on 42 CFR Part 2.
Currently under the rule, each facility that seeks to exchange a drug- or alcohol-abuse patient’s record must specify who will get the information, Pyles said. The proposed rule “says patients can have a general consent.”
The concern is that handing a patient a general consent form would become a de facto standard, he said. “These people will be presented this consent form at their weakest, where they’re suffering and at their most vulnerable,” Pyles said. “It’s an effort that appears to preserve the patient’s right, when in practice, it sets up a process to ignore it.”
The complete article is available here.