HHS is seeing some pushback from physicians and federal lawmakers in response to its Dec. 12 Request for Information (RFI) as it begins the long process of revising HIPAA rules—particularly the HIPAA privacy rule—to better enable a switch from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care.

The RFI includes 54 questions posed by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that look at how current HIPAA regulations might impede care coordination and case management (“HHS Looking for Input on Changes to Privacy Rule Affecting Care Coordination,” RPP 19, no. 1).

The opioid crisis took center stage in the RFI as HHS asked what changes can be made to the privacy rule to help address problems associated with the epidemic. For example, the RFI asked if there was concern that sharing of protected health information (PHI) associated with patients who were using opioids inappropriately might prevent those patients from seeking needed health services.