🇺🇸Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records

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Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records

Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records

Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records is part of the United States sectoral privacy framework. It should be applied to the covered actor, record, communication, service or practice identified by the statute rather than treated as a general law for all personal data.

Current official version

Effective status: Current rule; 2024 final-rule compliance required February 16, 2026

Citation: 42 U.S.C. s. 290dd-2; 42 C.F.R. Part 2

Source basis: Current eCFR Title 42 Part 2 and official HHS Part 2 final-rule and compliance materials.

Scope

Part 2 protects records that identify a person as having or having had a substance use disorder and that are created, received or acquired by a federally assisted Part 2 program, subject to the current definitions and exceptions.

Operational obligations

Part 2 programs and lawful holders must control uses and disclosures, use compliant consent, provide patient notice, restrict proceedings-based use, apply security safeguards, manage redisclosure and breach obligations, and align complaint and accounting processes with the current rule.

Maintain an evidence-based applicability decision, identify the systems and records within scope, assign owners, configure access and disclosure controls, document legal bases and exceptions, train relevant staff and retain the records needed to demonstrate compliance.

Important boundary

The 2024 final rule aligned significant parts of Part 2 with HIPAA but did not eliminate Part 2-specific protections. Compliance with the revised rule became mandatory on February 16, 2026.

Enforcement

HHS Office for Civil Rights administers civil enforcement under the current framework, with criminal enforcement provisions and coordination with other authorities where applicable.

What this means for you

Map this law to specific products, records, communications and teams. Verify current statutory and regulatory text before relying on an exception, consent, permissible purpose or enforcement assumption.

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