The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is issuing guidance to help clarify how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule permits covered healthcare providers to disclose protected health information to support applications for extreme risk protection orders that temporarily prevent a person in crisis, who poses a danger to themselves or others, from accessing firearms. This guidance helps implement the US Department of Justice’s model extreme risk protection order legislation that provides a framework for states to consider in creating laws allowing law enforcement, concerned family members, or others to seek these orders and to intervene in an effort to save lives. These orders can be an important step toward improving the public’s safety by helping to prevent firearm injuries and deaths. The guidance issued by OCR provides new guidance to support an extreme risk protection order on how HIPAA allows covered healthcare providers to disclose protected health information about an individual, without the individual’s authorization. The guidance includes specific examples for each permission.
