Earlier this month, Reps. Frank Farry (R-Bucks), Tina Pickett (R-Bradford/Sullivan/Susquehanna) and Mike Schlossberg (D-Lehigh) and Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) co-sponsored a bill advocating the sharing of mental health and physical health information among providers in Pennsylvania. (Currently, this is not allowed.) Farry frames in light of the opioid epidemic and addiction issues in the main.
“These existing mental health and substance abuse laws were written in the 1970s,” said Farry, chair of the House Human Services Committee. “We know so much more now about treating the whole person. These changes are overdue, but with so many of our friends and neighbors struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot wait any longer to give healthcare providers all of the tools they need to do their jobs.”
That’s one way of looking at it: But what about privacy?
