Obama administration modifies HIPAA to strengthen the firearm background check system

January 4

By: Jocelyn Samuels, Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) moved forward on commitments made by President Obama to curb gun violence across the nation.  Specifically, we have modified the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to expressly permit certain covered entities to disclose to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the identities of those individuals who, for mental health reasons, already are prohibited by Federal law from having a firearm.

Due to a history of under-reporting, the NICS has lacked complete information about all individuals who are prohibited by Federal law from possessing or receiving a firearm. The modification announced today better enables the reporting of the identities of prohibited individuals to the background check system and is an important step toward improving the public’s safety while continuing to strongly protect individuals’ privacy interests.

Specifically, this final rule gives States improved flexibility to ensure accurate but limited information is reported to the NICS.  The rulemaking makes clear that, under the Privacy Rule, certain covered entities are permitted to disclose limited information to the NICS.  The information that can be disclosed is the minimum necessary identifying information about individuals who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution or otherwise have been determined by a lawful authority to be a danger to themselves or others or to lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs.

The new modification is carefully and narrowly tailored to preserve the patient-provider relationship and ensure that individuals are not discouraged from seeking voluntary treatment. This rule applies only to a small subset of HIPAA covered entities that either make the mental health determinations that disqualify individuals from having a firearm or are designated by their States to report this information to NICS – and it allows such entities to report only limited identifying, non-clinical information to the NICS.

The rule does not apply to most treating providers and does not allow reporting of diagnostic, clinical, or other mental health treatment information.

It is important to note that the vast majority of Americans with mental health conditions are not violent and that those with mental illness are in fact more likely to be victims than perpetrators.  An individual who seeks help for mental health problems or receives mental health treatment is not automatically legally prohibited from having a firearm; nothing in this final rule changes that.  HHS continues to support efforts by the Administration to dispel negative attitudes and misconceptions relating to mental illness and to encourage individuals to seek voluntary mental health treatment.  Learn more about mental health resources and recovery at http://www.mentalhealth.gov.

The Final Rule is available for review at: http://www.federalregister.gov.

Want to comment on this Blog? Visit our Twitter page @HHSOCR to share your thoughts and start a conversation.

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FBHO

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HIPAA is a joke anyway.

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Interesting....I wonder what the rest of his "changes" are.


I guess "Shall not be Infringed" is a difficult concept.

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wonder whats thats going to do to all the PTSD claims on ETS'ing Vets..

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Interesting....I wonder what the rest of his "changes" are.


I guess "Shall not be Infringed" is a difficult concept.

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Well NICS is SUPPOSED to preclude sales to the crazies.  Modifying HIPAA to make reporting psychosis mandatory wouldn't be a bad step.  But then again communist regimes used to pack political prisoners off to the gulag with a superficial finding of insanity.

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Well NICS is SUPPOSED to preclude sales to the crazies.

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Well NICS is SUPPOSED to preclude sales to the crazies.  Modifying HIPAA to make reporting psychosis mandatory wouldn't be a bad step.  But then again communist regimes used to pack political prisoners off to the gulag with a superficial finding of insanity.

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As dirty as this is, if this is the kind of thing Obama's new round of EO's on gun control consist of, it's a win for us, and more proof that all they can do legally is nibble around the edges.

My gut feeling is that we'll see a bunch of these types of minor adjustments, and Obama will both try to make it seem bigger than it is, and try and use it to "re-launch the debate" and "shift the debate".

Thing is, over the past few years, even after Sandy Hook, the debate HAS shifted. In our direction. We're now at 51%+ on key opinions on gun control, and gun bans.

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Well NICS is SUPPOSED to preclude sales to the crazies.  Modifying HIPAA to make reporting psychosis mandatory wouldn't be a bad step.  But then again communist regimes used to pack political prisoners off to the gulag with a superficial finding of insanity.

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Well NICS is SUPPOSED to preclude sales to the crazies.  Modifying HIPAA to make reporting psychosis mandatory wouldn't be a bad step.  But then again communist regimes used to pack political prisoners off to the gulag with a superficial finding of insanity.

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As dirty as this is, if this is the kind of thing Obama's new round of EO's on gun control consist of, it's a win for us, and more proof that all they can do legally is nibble around the edges.

My gut feeling is that we'll see a bunch of these types of minor adjustments, and Obama will both try to make it seem bigger than it is, and try and use it to "re-launch the debate" and "shift the debate".

Thing is, over the past few years, even after Sandy Hook, the debate HAS shifted. In our direction. We're now at 51%+ on key opinions on gun control, and gun bans.

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It just went live on the Federal Register Public Inspection site.

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/01/06/2015-33181/health-insurance-portability-and-accountability-act-privacy-rule-and-the-national-instant-criminal

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This showed up briefly on CMS.gov. Then it disappeared. (You can still find it through Google cache).




ETA: Here is where it was, before it was nuked

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It just went live on the Federal Register Public Inspection site.

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/01/06/2015-33181/health-insurance-portability-and-accountability-act-privacy-rule-and-the-national-instant-criminal

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This is the first step on the assault on private gun ownership.



The federal government in line with the health care industry will determine the  2nd amendment right .



Next step will be anyone on a any type of psych meds.



Just about any med you take according to the potential side effects of dangers will be listed as being denied gun ownership .



Everything from...

Blood thinner drugs

Cholesterol drugs

Quit smoking drugs

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Huh.  Interesting.  Especially since shyness is now considered a disorder.

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That was when they announced the intention to do this. (Beginning of rule making process).
Today is the end of the process.