health care operations that can include quality assessment and improvement activities such as outcomes evaluation.
The AHA added that all participating providers need to be able to share and conduct population-based data analyses to achieve meaningful quality and efficiency improvements.
Congress should require, the AHA said in the letter, that the HIPAA medical privacy regulations enforced by the Office for Civil Rights permit a patient’s medical information to be used by and disclosed to all their providers. But they explained that the patient shouldn’t have to have a direct relationship with all of the organizations and providers that technically ‘use’ and/or have access to the data.
Author: Ryan Beitler
An editor and contributor to Addiction Now, Ryan Beitler is a journalist, fiction writer, musician, and travel writer. He has written for Paste Magazine, OC Weekly, numerous addiction recovery publications, and his travel blog Our Little Blue Rock. He lives in Southern California. Contact Ryan at ryanrbeitler@gmail.com or ryanb@addictionnow.com.
 wrote a letter to Congress urging them to reduce regulatory burdens on hospitals, patients, and health systems, including data sharing barriers for people with addiction treatment records, highlighting the necessary actions to do so.){kind=link}