Notice to patients of federal confidentiality requirements.

§ 2.22 Notice to patients of federal confidentiality requirements. (a) Notice required. At the time of admission to a part 2 program or, in the case that a patient does not have capacity upon admission to understand his or her medical status, as soon thereafter as the patient attains such capacity, each part 2 program shall: (1) Communicate to the patient that federal law and regulations protect the confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records; and (2) Give to the patient a summary in writing of the federal law and regulations. (b) Required elements of written summary. The written summary of the federal law and regulations must include: (1) A general description of the limited circumstances under which a part 2 program may acknowledge that an individual is present or disclose outside the part 2 program information identifying a patient as having or having had a substance use disorder; (2) A statement that violation of the federal law and regulations by a part 2 program is a crime and that suspected violations may be reported to appropriate authorities consistent with § 2.4, along with contact information; (3) A statement that information related to a patient's commission of a crime on the premises of the part 2 program or against personnel of the part 2 program is not protected; (4) A statement that reports of suspected child abuse and neglect made under state law to appropriate state or local authorities are not protected; and (5) A citation to the federal law and regulations. (c) Program options. The part 2 program must devise a notice to comply with the requirement to provide the patient with a summary in writing of the federal law and regulations. In this written summary, the part 2 program also may include information concerning state law and any of the part 2 program's policies that are not inconsistent with state and federal law on the subject of confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records.