Photo of Taylor Crossley

Taylor Crossley

Taylor focuses on healthcare regulatory matters. At Husch Blackwell, she focuses on matters such as healthcare privacy, confidentiality, and mental health law (including 42 C.F.R. Part 2, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the SUPPORT for Patients & Communities Act, and emerging therapy). She also assists with issues relating to healthcare quality, including adverse event reporting, licensure and certification questions, and the Health Care Quality Improvement Act.

Contact:Read more about Taylor Crossley

This post is part of our The Top 2025 Privacy and Security Issues Still Shaping Healthcare series, in which our team of attorneys provides essential strategies and insights for healthcare privacy and security.

HHS Ramps Up Enforcement Against Information Blocking

2025 marks a significant turning point in federal enforcement against “information blocking” in healthcare. In a series of announcements this September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) signaled a major crackdown on healthcare entities—especially health IT developers, health information networks, and certain providers—that restrict patient access to their electronic health information (“EHI”).

Under the direction of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., HHS has dedicated increased resources and issued clear warnings that enforcement of information blocking rules is now a top priority. This includes the threat of substantial civil monetary penalties (“CMPs”)—up to $1 million per violation—for certain actors, as well as program-specific disincentives for providers who participate in Medicare and other federal programs. 

Judge's gavel on table in office

On February 20, 2025, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) announced that its legal counsel submitted a letter to the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury, requesting a stay of enforcement of the September 2024 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) Final Rule. In the letter, ERIC urged the Departments to exercise their authority under 5 U.S.C. § 705 to postpone the effective date of the Final Rule while litigation challenging its validity is ongoing. This request marks a significant development in the legal landscape surrounding mental health parity laws and could have far-reaching implications for employers, health plans, and other stakeholders in the health insurance industry.

Judge's gavel on table in office

On January 17, 2025, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming that the 2024 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) Final Rule oversteps legal bounds, breaches the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), improperly delegates the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury’s (Departments) executive power to private entities, and violates the Due Process Clause. ERIC argues that under the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, the plan was not obligated to assess any disparate impact that a term, applicable to both medical/surgical (M/S) and mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits, might have had on access to MH/SUD benefits. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) similarly maintained the disparate treatment standard of liability, rather than the disparate impact standard. Moreover, the Departments acknowledged in the 2013 regulations that “disparate results alone” did not constitute a parity violation.

Doctor writing survey, insurance and claim form for medical paperwork, document and script for patient records, test result and research in a hospital. Physician hands signing and planning healthcare

On September 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury (collectively, the Departments) issued a Final Rule clarifying and adding additional requirements on health plans to provide equitable access to health insurance coverage for treatment of mental health and substance use disorders (SUDs), as required by the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) and implementing regulations at 45 C.F.R. Part 146 and 147 (the 2024 Final Rule).

MHPAEA is a federal law that prevents group health plans and health insurance issuers (collectively, Health Plans) that provide mental health or substance use disorder benefits from imposing less favorable benefit limitations on those benefits than it does for a medical condition or surgical procedure. This means that Health Plans cannot impose additional financial requirements or apply non-quantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) to these benefits more stringently than those applied to medical/surgical benefits.

What Are the Changes?

On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) along with guidance updating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) regulations at 45 C.F.R. Parts 160 and 164 (the “Privacy Rule”). The Final Rule prohibits the use or disclosure of protected health information (“PHI”) for the purpose of (1) conducting criminal, civil, or administrative investigations into, or (2) imposing criminal, civil, or administrative liability on any person for the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care that is legal when provided. The Final Rule also prohibits the use or disclosure of PHI in order to (3) identify any person for any of those purposes (the “Prohibition”).[1]

On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) finalized long-awaited modifications to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records regulations at 42 C.F.R. Part 2, which requires individuals or entities that receive federal funding and provide SUD treatment to implement additional privacy protections and obtain specific consent before using and disclosing SUD treatment records (see 42 C.F.R. § 2.11).

In the United States, mental health (“MH”) and substance use disorder (“SUD”) (collectively “MH/SUD”) have continued to represent areas of intense concern. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MH struggles of essential workers and health care professionals were pushed to the forefront. However, issues related to MH/SUD have continued to escalate.