Lawmakers seek to protect injured workers’ mental health records
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Colorado lawmakers are now considering legislation that would require workers compensation insurers and self-insured employers to protect an injured worker’s mental health records.
H.B. 1354, introduced Thursday, defines "mental health records" as psychological or psychiatric intake evaluation or progress notes or psychiatric independent medical examination and division provided to an insurer as necessary for payment, adjustment, and adjudication of claims involving psychiatric issues.
It would prohibit the disclosure of mental health records “to any person who is not directly involved in adjusting or adjudicating claims involving psychiatric issues without the consent of the mental health provider or claimant” and prohibits an insurer from releasing a claimant's mental health records to the claimant's employer.
The bill would also limit the insurer’s disclosure of an injured worker’s mental health records to an employer, supervisor, or manager “to only information from the mental health records pertaining to work restrictions placed on the claimant.”
For a self-insured employer, the bill would require the employer to keep a claimant's mental health records separate from personnel files, and would limit the disclosure of the claimant's mental health records to a supervisor or manager to only information from the mental health records pertaining to work restrictions placed on the claimant, among other provisions.
The bill would also require the director of the state Division of Workers’ Compensation in the Department of Labor and Employment to institute a training program relating to mental health records for division employees responsible for medical policy and claims management and processing.
The bill was assigned to the Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services committee.
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