Title: Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act
This bill aligns federal privacy standards for substance use disorder patient records more closely with standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3545 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3545

 To amend the Public Health Service Act to protect the confidentiality 
               of substance use disorder patient records.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2017

 Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. Meehan, Mr. Blumenauer, 
  Mr. Carter of Georgia, Mr. Renacci, and Mr. Mullin) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                                Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act to protect the confidentiality 
               of substance use disorder patient records.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Overdose Prevention and Patient 
Safety Act''.

SEC. 2. CONFIDENTIALITY OF RECORDS.

    Section 543 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290dd-2) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``The content'' 
                and inserting ``Subject to paragraph (3), the 
                content'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``Whether'' and 
                inserting ``Subject to paragraph (3), whether''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Exception.--
                    ``(A) In general.--In the case of a use or 
                disclosure of the content of a record referred to in 
                subsection (a) for purposes of treatment, payment, or 
                health care operations, paragraphs (1) and (2), as 
                applicable, and regulations issued under subsection 
                (g), including any such regulations pertaining to 
                redisclosure limitations, shall not apply, and the 
                provisions of section 164.506 of title 45, Code of 
                Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation, shall 
                apply with respect to such use or disclosure of such 
                content by an entity in the same manner and to the same 
                extent as such provisions apply with respect to the use 
                or disclosure of protected health information by a 
                covered entity.
                    ``(B) Definitions.--For purposes of this paragraph, 
                the terms `treatment', `payment', `health care 
                operations', and `protected health information' have 
                the meaning given such terms in section 164.501 of 
                title 45, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor 
                regulation, and the term `covered entity' has the 
                meaning given such term in section 160.103 of title 45, 
                Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor 
                regulation.''; and
            (2) by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
    ``(c) Use of Records in Criminal Proceedings.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as authorized by a court order 
        granted under subsection (b)(2)(C), no record referred to in 
        subsection (a) may be used to initiate or substantiate any 
        criminal charges against a patient or to conduct any 
        investigation of a patient.
            ``(2) Additional protections.--In the case of a use or 
        disclosure of a record referred to in subsection (a) for 
        purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations as 
        provided for under subsection (b), no further disclosure or 
        redisclosure of such record is allowed to initiate or 
        substantiate any criminal charges against a patient or to 
        conduct any investigation of a patient except as authorized by 
        a court order granted under subsection (b)(2)(C) of this 
        section.
            ``(3) Exclusionary effect and dismissal.--Any record 
        referred to in subsection (a) that has been used or disclosed 
        to initiate or substantiate any criminal charges against a 
        patient or to conduct any investigation of a patient in 
        violation of paragraph (1) or (2), shall be excluded from 
        evidence in any proposed or actual proceedings relating to such 
        criminal charges or investigation and absent good cause shown 
        shall result in the automatic dismissal of any proceedings for 
        which the content of the record was offered.''.
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