“Hospital Toolkit” offers new resources for hospitals treating patients with substance use disorder
June 20, 2018
Emergency medicine providers have a new set of resources for treating patients with substance use disorders (SUD): Addiction Policy Forum’s new “Hospital Toolkit.” The toolkit is designed for hospitals as well as patients, families, and advocates, to improve access to SUD treatment and care in hospital emergency departments.
Read more
Call Your Legislators Today
June 15, 2018
It is imperative you call or email your legislators and Senate and Assembly leadership TODAY June 14, 2018 to express strong support for legislation, requiring the Department of Financial Services to collect key data from insurers and health plans to help determine compliance with the federal and state MH and SUD parity laws.
Read more
NYT EDITORIAL FEATURES PARITY ENFORCEMENT
June 4, 2018
June 4, 2018: An editorial published in the Sunday edition of the New York Times presents a powerful analysis of why the recent call to bring back mental asylums is not sensible, and identifies three major priorities to increase access to mental health and substance use treatment, including better enforcement of the Parity Law.
Read more
The ATI/Reentry Coalition Calls for Increased Funds to Support Life-Changing Programs for the Thousands of People Across NYC Involved in the CJ System
May 25, 2018
Today members of the City Council joined the Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI)/Reentry Coalition to call for increased support for ATI and reentry services in New York City for Fiscal Year 2019.
Read more
SAMHSA and ONC publish two new guidance documents clarifying 42 CFR Part 2
May 24, 2018
New official guidance documents are now available for substance use disorder patients and treatment providers to better understand the confidentiality protections for substance use disorder information, 42 CFR Part 2 (Part 2). The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrative (SAMHSA) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published two factsheets in May 2018 regarding the application of Part 2 to common healthcare and health information technology settings, and SAMHSA updated existing guidance with new information about the rights of same-sex couples to access treatment information about a spouse.
Read more
Preliminary approval of Aetna HIV Privacy Breach settlement
May 23, 2018
On May 10, 2018, a federal court in Pennsylvania granted preliminary approval of the $17 million settlement of the Beckett v Aetna class action lawsuit. The lawsuit arose from an Aetna mailing last July, disclosing the HIV status of nearly 12,000 members through the large, transparent window on the envelope. The suit also charged Aetna with improperly transferring protected health information of over 13,000 members to its law firm and a mail vendor.
Read more
Addiction Solutions Campaign Releases Opioid Settlement Recommendations
May 22, 2018
New York, NY: Released today, “Opioid Settlement Priorities; Recommendations from the Addiction Solutions Campaign” outlines several key strategies for investing …
Read more
May 16th is National Call-In Day: Urge Your U.S. House Member to Oppose the “Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act” (H.R. 3545)
May 16, 2018
May 16th is National Call-In Day: Urge Your U.S. House Member to Oppose the “Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act” (H.R. 3545)
Read more
DOJ settlement with skilled nursing facility: excluding people on addiction medication violates the ADA
May 14, 2018
The Legal Action Center hails the Department of Justice’s settlement which found that a skilled nursing facility violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by excluding a patient because the patient was treated with Suboxone for opioid use disorder (OUD).
Read more
New York Bar Foundation Grant to LAC
May 7, 2018
New York: The New York Bar Foundation recently presented a grant of $4,500 to the Legal Action Center to support …
Read more