A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) advisory panel is recommending that healthcare providers supply patients with easy-to-understand notices of how their information will be used and protected when it is exchanged, while the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration continues to study whether HIPAA privacy protections for mental health information should include test data. Government Health IT reports that HHS is recommending physicians discuss face-to-face information sharing practices with their patients and include a description of how their information will be used in their HIPAA-required privacy practices notice that is "written so that 90 percent of patients can understand it."
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