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Updated Mandatory Disclosure Requirements for Colorado Mental Health Providers Go into Effect

On August 1, 2024, Colorado legislation took effect amending the mandatory disclosures that mental health providers must make to their clients under state law. Providers of mental health services in Colorado should take note of the new legislation and review their existing patient disclosure notices to ensure compliance.

Colorado law requires mental health providers to disclose certain information in writing during initial client contact. The statute covers a broad range of mental health providers, including psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors, addiction counselors, and licensee candidates. Key elements of the mandatory disclosures include the following:

  • The provider’s name, business address, and business phone number.
  • The provider’s degrees; credentials; certifications; registrations; licenses; and related education, experience, and training.
  • Contact information related to the applicable board that regulates the provider’s profession.
  • Certain statements regarding fees, patient freedom of choice and rights to information, inappropriateness of sexual relationships between providers and clients, confidentiality of information discussed during sessions, and record retention requirements.

Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 12-245-216(1).

The newly enacted legislation reduced the extent of the required mandatory disclosures. Previously, the Colorado statute required that providers include information explaining the levels of regulation applicable to different mental health professionals, but Senate Bill 24-115 removed this requirement. 2024 Colo. Legis. Serv. Ch. 217 (S.B. 24-115). This is a positive change for providers because it reduces some of the mandatory disclosures.

If you need assistance creating a patient notice to comply with the Colorado statute overall or assistance updating your existing disclosures, please reach out to us. We will work to address any questions you may have regarding the impact of this legislation and the compliance of your current forms.




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Surfing “Tech’s Next Big Wave”: Navigating the Legal Challenges in Digital Health

Fortune’s April 2018 cover story, “Tech’s Next Big Wave: Big Data Meets Biology,” conveys loudly and clearly that technological innovation is transforming the health care continuum—changing the way care is delivered, as well as how patients manage their ongoing health—and as patient demand for health innovation increases, more companies seem eager to hop on the digital health bandwagon. The article provides a thoughtful, realistic (and somewhat sobering) perspective on digital health innovation’s successes and other results to date. It also quite effectively uses real world stories to convey the human dimension of digital health. One is the story of a mother who manually sampled and recorded her son’s glucose levels 20 times a day before an automated monitoring system connected to a mobile app allowed them both to live their lives without constant interruption by this critical care management function. Another describes use of an artificial intelligence “command center” to expedite access to life-saving surgery by a man with an aortic dissection. These real-world examples drive home the fact that digital health is already making a profound difference in our lives by removing barriers to care that are critical to saving lives and managing chronic diseases.

What the article does not touch on, however, are the myriad, complex legal challenges that must be addressed at the earliest stages of the planning process and the intensifying interest of government oversight and enforcement bodies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, interested in protecting the safety and privacy of patients and consumers. Just last month, we saw the SEC charge Theranos’ CEO Elizabeth Holmes with fraud for allegedly misleading investors about the company’s ability to detect health conditions from a small sample of blood. Earlier this year, another “unicorn” start-up, Outcome Health, settled with the federal government after The Wall Street Journal reported that they allegedly misled advertisers with manipulated information. The United States has also brought claims against the private equity company investor of a compounding pharmacy that allegedly paid illegal kickbacks to marketing firms to induce prescriptions written by telemedicine providers for costly compounded drugs reimbursed by TRICARE.

Opportunities and Challenges of the Patient Data “Gold Rush”

Eric Topol, MD, director at the Scripps Research Institute, told Fortune that “the quest to retrieve, analyze and leverage” data “has become the new gold rush. And a vanguard of tech titans—not to mention a bevy of hot startups—are on the hunt for it.” There is no doubt that harnessing and analyzing big data provide virtually limitless fuel for digital health innovation of the type patients and consumers are demanding and that tech companies are eager to develop and commercialize. While optimism about the quest for big data is certainly justified, it must be tempered by caution and careful consideration of complex, multi-dimensional legal [...]

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Understanding the Implications of Federal Remote Prescribing Laws on Telemedicine’s Role in Behavioral Health Treatment

The opioid epidemic is making the United States acutely aware of the horrors of substance abuse disorders and the limited means of treating the individuals suffering from addiction. Rural America is among the places hit hardest by opioid addiction while also having limited access to mental and behavioral health providers.

Telemedicine offers a viable solution to provider shortages, particularly with an eye toward mental health care professionals. Although telemedicine alone will not remedy the shortage of psychiatrists in the United States, the technology does possess the capability of greatly increasing access to them; however, a large driver of psychiatric care is provided through pharmaceutical treatments.

The ability for providers to prescribe pharmaceuticals, particularly controlled substances, to patients the provider has not seen in person is limited by the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (Haight Act). The relevance of the Haight Act, a law that went into effect almost nine years ago, has been revitalized, but the opioid epidemic and advances in psychiatric treatment are now demonstrating the law requires clarification through amendment to improve access to pharmaceutical treatments and, in turn, increase access to mental health care.

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Reprinted with permission, copyright © 2018, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.




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