Center of Excellence for Protected Health Information Related to Behavioral Health (CoE-PHIBH) - CAI proposes to continue serving as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) national Center of Excellence for Protected Health Information Related to Behavioral Health (CoE-PHIBH), delivering training and technical assistance (TTA) to help the behavioral health (BH) workforce nationwide understand and apply the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 42 CFR Part 2, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and state privacy laws. The primary audience includes state, territorial, and tribal administrators developing privacy policy; clinical teams; school-based staff; and first responders, child welfare case managers, and justice system partners, drawn from backgrounds spanning law, medicine, social work, and certificate programs. CoE-PHIBH's national catchment includes 7,829 substance use treatment facilities, 15,312 mental health facilities, and 9,302 co-occurring disorder facilities, serving a population where 61.5 million adults experienced mental illness and 46.3 million a substance use disorder in 2024. Evolving requirements, including the 2024 Part 2 Final Rule and upcoming HIPAA updates, make ongoing support essential, particularly for rural residents and those in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas. CAI will deliver a tiered national TTA model: Universal TTA (webinars, e-learning, toolkits) for broad awareness; Targeted TTA (Communities of Practice, cohort training) for specific roles; and Intensive TTA (individualized consultation) for complex needs, reaching approximately 3,168 unduplicated individuals annually and 9,504 over three years. CoE-PHIBH will meet 100% of SAMHSA reporting deadlines, develop at least 10 model resources annually, ensure 90% of participants demonstrate increased knowledge, engage 30 partner organizations in 40 collaborative activities, and collect standardized evaluation data across all TTA activities to drive continuous improvement.
