HHS - Psychotherapy Notes and Testing Data Study Announcement

NOTE: FOLLOW All of the instructions below to register

HHS to Host Webinar as Part of Psychotherapy Notes and Testing Data Study under the HITECH Act

January 12, 2011

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is conducting a Confidentiality and Privacy Issues Related to Psychological Testing Data study, in close cooperation with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) pursuant to section 13424 of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, a component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (P.L. 111-5). This study is addressing whether the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s special protections relating to the use and disclosure of psychotherapy notes should also be applied to “test data that is related to direct responses, scores, items, forms, protocols, manuals or other materials that are part of a mental health evaluation.”

As part of this study, SAMHSA is hosting an interactive webinar on January 18, 2011, 12:00pm – 2:00pm (EST), to bring together professionals in the areas of mental health and privacy protection, summarize what its project team has learned to date, and provide participants with opportunities to ask questions and submit comments. 

Pre-registration is requested and can be accomplished at the following website: https://www.mymeetings.com/emeet/rsvp/index.jsp?customHeader=mymeetings&Conference_ID=2416788&passcode=8217181. Upon registering, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to login and join the webinar via internet and telephone.

If you have any questions about the webinar or the Confidentiality and Privacy Issues Related to Psychological Testing Data project, please contact David Bercham at 301-251-0300, x215, or through email at David.Bercham@AMSAQ.com.