September 20, 2018
Dear Conferees
The National Committee for Quality Assurance urges you to adopt House language amending Title 42 of the Combined Federal Register Part 2 (42 CFR Part 2) in reconciling House and Senate passed versions of HR 6 to address the opioid crisis.
42 CFR Part 2 now impedes high quality care by keeping patients’ substance abuse treatment data siloed from the rest of patients’ records. This limits the ability to coordinate care among all clinicians who treat such patients, which is essential for quality.
The House language allows electronic medical records use for care coordination and aligns with HIPAA policies on sharing data to protect patient privacy. This will help to bring substance use disorder treatment into mainstream primary care, providing urgently needed expanded access to care and bolstering the effectiveness of other key provisions in the legislation.
We thank you for your leadership in addressing the opioid crisis and hope you agree to strengthen HR6 by including the 42 CFR Part 2 amendment is in the final legislation. Please contact Federal Affairs Director Paul Cotton at (202) 955-5162 or cotton@ncqa.org if you have any questions.
Sincerely
Margaret E. O’Kane
President