Liath Dalton 

You’re listening to Group Practice Tech, a podcast by Person Centered Tech, where we help mental health group practice owners ethically and effectively leverage tech to improve their practices. I’m your co-host, Evan Dumas.

 

Liath Dalton 

And I’m Liath Dalton, and we are Person Centered Tech.

 

Liath Dalton 

This episode is brought to you by Therapy Notes. Therapy Notes is a robust online practice management and electronic health record system to support you in growing your thriving practice. Therapy Notes is a complete practice management system with all the functionality you need to manage client records, meet with clients remotely, create rich documentation, schedule appointments and bill insurance all right at your fingertips. To get two free months of Therapy Notes as a new Therapy Notes user go to therapynotes.com and use promo code PCT.

 

Evan Dumas 

Hello and welcome to Episode 536: Reproductive Health Records and HIPAA: What Therapists Need to Know.

 

Liath Dalton 

And this is a sort of big update in terms of what you need to know, but the result is that the actions that you would have been required to be in compliance with the reproductive health final rule are no longer applicable.

 

Liath Dalton 

So essentially, in 2024, the reproductive health Final Rule was passed and went into effect and had some new requirements. Those requirements included two really significant components.

 

Liath Dalton 

One was related to attestations that needed to be obtained prior to disclosing client info, Protected Health Info, that was potentially related to reproductive health in response to certain types of requests, like law enforcement, subpoenas, oversight or coroners.

 

Evan Dumas 

Mhm.

 

Liath Dalton 

And the whole purpose of getting those attestations was to ensure that the disclosure wasn’t for prohibited investigations around liability for receiving lawful reproductive care.

 

Liath Dalton 

Basically for therapists, this wasn’t something that you were going to be using daily, unless you had a sort of particular niche practice, but would only be in kind of use if you got one of those rare outside requests. And so it was necessary, in order to be in compliance with the attestation component, to first of all adopt the model attestation, and have a policy around how and when it got utilized, etc, and to train your team on that the current status is that that’s no longer applicable. So you don’t need to add the attestation process currently.

 

Liath Dalton 

And the other change that would have gone into effect, but not until February 2026, was the requirement that your HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices needed to be updated to explain the new protections. So what that means for you currently is that your existent HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices is still fine. It does not need any edits specific to reproductive health under HIPAA. It’s important to note that some state laws may have stricter reproductive privacy protections.

 

Evan Dumas 

Yeah.

 

Liath Dalton 

And so you absolutely want/need to be in compliance with those. And if there are state law protections that are greater than the basically now non-existent ones federally under HIPAA, then those do need to be specified in your HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

 

Evan Dumas 

Mhm.

 

Liath Dalton 

So attestations don’t apply, changing your NPP doesn’t apply. And all of that is because there was a case in Texas that struck it down in June. It was a federal court in Texas that vacated the rule. And despite there being all of this talk currently about courts not being able to make a nationwide injunction, because it was a federal court, it’s being treated as a nationwide injunction.

 

Evan Dumas 

Yeah.

 

Liath Dalton 

So essentially, that means you don’t have to take action to get in compliance with this new rule, because the new rule currently doesn’t exist, isn’t in effect, right?

 

Evan Dumas 

Womp womp.

 

Liath Dalton 

Which, the not having to do something and like change policies and procedures and forms and disseminate them to clients, logistically speaking, is a positive.

 

Evan Dumas 

Sure.

 

Liath Dalton 

Right? If we’re looking for a silver lining without trying to get into toxic positivity here.

 

Liath Dalton 

But the the broader piece of this, of there not being that protection, is something that I think is a real shame, and so I think it’s important for providers to take action themselves to safeguard information of that sensitive nature, and not just about reproductive care, but certainly including reproductive care, and most certainly to make sure that you are aware of any state law protections that are applicable and ensure that that’s addressed In your internal policies and procedures and in your NPP. But under HIPAA, there isn’t something that you need to to do.

 

Liath Dalton 

And just you know, in in this kind of current climate that we are living in and that you are caring for clients, within having real intentionality and care around how sensitive information is documented and disclosed is really vital. And I don’t just mean sensitive information in terms of Protected Health Information, but a kind of class of sensitive information within Protected Health Information.

 

Liath Dalton 

This is something that, right, after the Dobbs decision and Roe was struck down, was a need that a lot of therapists voiced, having concern around, and wanting support on and to be equipped to kind of navigate this new context.

 

Liath Dalton 

So one of the CE trainings that PCT offers is on the Law and Ethics of Clinical Documentation in a Post-Roe World. So we’ll link to that in the show notes for you, so that if there are things you want to address outside of this whole specific HIPAA piece related to documenting reproductive care treatment discussions with clients, or handling info when it comes to releases you receive from other providers for a client, you’re well equipped to do that.

 

Liath Dalton 

So yes, this is sort of a short but not necessarily sweet episode. Like I said, at least there’s the silver lining of not having to do additional logistical things to get in compliance with another rule. We hope you found this helpful, and stay tuned for our next week’s episode.

 

Evan Dumas 

Yeah, talk to you next week, everybody.

 

Liath Dalton 

This has been Group Practice Tech. You can find us at personcenteredtech.com. For more podcast episodes, you can go to personcenteredtech.com/podcast or click podcast on the menu bar.