VotedBy VotedBy ⌕
Election Day · Tue, Nov 3See how your members of Congress voted →

H.R. 2690 · 114th Congress

Including Families in Mental Health Recovery Act of 2015

Key: what the circles and colors mean

Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:

IntroducedPassed one chamberPassed both chambersBecame law (gold)Resolution agreed to (full, dark)Failed or vetoed (gray)

Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.

Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.

Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 114th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.

No cosponsors.

Amends the HITECH Act to direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promulgate regulations clarifying the circumstances under which, consistent with the standards governing the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information promulgated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA),…

What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in House · Jun 9, 2015

Including Families in Mental Health Recovery Act of 2015

Amends the HITECH Act to direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promulgate regulations clarifying the circumstances under which, consistent with the standards governing the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information promulgated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), health care providers and covered entities may disclose the protected health information of patients with a mental illness, including for purposes of:

  • communicating with a patient's family, friends, or caregivers, including about treatments, side effects, risk factors, and the availability of community resources, with or without patient consent;
  • considering the patient's capacity to agree or object to the sharing of patient information;
  • involving a patient's family members, friends, or caregivers in the patient's care plan in dealing with patient failures to adhere to medication or other therapy;
  • communicating with family members, caregivers, law enforcement, or others when the patient presents a serious and imminent threat of harm to self or others; and
  • communicating to law enforcement and family members or caregivers about the admission or release of a patient who was admitted to a facility for an emergency psychiatric hold or involuntary treatment.

Requires HHS to: (1) carry out such provisions in coordination with its Office for Civil Rights of HHS; and (2) ensure that the regulations pertaining to such provisions are consistent with the guidance entitled "HIPAA Privacy Rule and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health," issued by HHS on February 20, 2014.

Directs HHS to develop and disseminate model programs for: (1) training health care providers regarding the circumstances under which the protected health information of patients with a mental illness may be disclosed, (2) training lawyers and others in the legal profession on such circumstances, and (3) training patients and their families regarding their rights to protect and obtain information.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov

About this bill and sources

Official title: Including Families in Mental Health Recovery Act of 2015

Latest action (Jun 12, 2015): Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Policy area: Health · Origin: House · Introduced: Jun 9, 2015

Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)

No recorded floor vote found.