Questions Loom Ahead of Substance Abuse Privacy Rules Shift

Attorney Aleksandra Vold on Tech, Enforcement Considerations for Substance Use Data Marianne Kolbasuk McGee (HealthInfoSec) • February 4, 2026 25 Minutes

As the mid-February compliance deadline approaches for a rule change better aligning federal regulations for the confidentiality of substance use disorder records with HIPAA, federally-funded treatment practices face several critical unanswered questions, said attorney Aleksandra Vold, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler.

That includes how quickly federal regulators will move to enforce the changes, details about how records should be technically flagged and protected when mixed with a patient's other electronic health records, and how records should - or should not - be used in artificial intelligence efforts.

The changes modify Part 2 of Section 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assigned the responsibility for Part 2 enforcement to the Office for Civil Rights, the small ...