The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands health insurance coverage for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, underscoring the value of improving SUD service integration in primarily physical health care settings. It is not yet known to what degree specialized privacy regulations-Code of Federal Regulations Title 42, Part 2 (42 CFR Part 2), in particular-will affect access to or the utilization and delivery of SUD treatment in primary care. In addition to exploring the emerging benefits and barriers that specialized confidentiality regulations pose to treatment in early adopting integrated health care settings, this article introduces and explicates 42 CFR Part 2 to support provider and administrator implementation of SUD privacy regulations in integrated settings. The authors also argue that, although intended to protect patients with SUD, special SUD information protection may inadvertently reinforce stigma against patients by purporting the belief that SUD is different from other health problems and must be kept private. In turn, this stigma may inhibit the delivery of comprehensive integrated care.

Marijuana purchasing behaviors vary by the purchaser’s individual characteristics; however, little is known about patients’ purchasing behaviors when buying from medical marijuana dispensaries (MMDs). Our objective was to explore whether patient characteristics were associated with amount spent during one financial transaction at medical marijuana dispensaries. We conducted a pilot study of 4 purposively sampled MMD locations in Long Beach, California, in 2012. A total of 132 medical marijuana patients (33 patients per dispensary) participated in an exit survey about their demographic characteristics, conditions for their medical marijuana recommendation, amount spent at the dispensary, and cross-streets of where they lived. The sample reported amounts spent on discrete purchases of marijuana buds averaging $40.82 (ranging $10 to $255). Multivariate regression analyses indicated average amount spent differed significantly by patient age and condition. An increase in 10 years of age was associated with a 10% higher amount spent. Receiving a recommendation for anxiety and/or sleeping problems or other nonspecified conditions was related to higher discrete purchase amounts than chronic pain. This pilot suggests that variations in patient purchasing behaviors from MMDs exist. These purchase behaviors can provide insight into variations in how patients use dispensaries, consume products, and allocate personal resources.

It is important to understand the perceptions of staff members who will be implementing the expected integration of mental health and substance use services into primary care. Surveys were administered to mental health/substance use disorder (MH/SUD) staff, support staff (SS), and primary care providers (PCPs) from three organizations (seven sites) that were participating in an initiative to promote the integration of MH/SUD services into primary care in Kern County, California. Results suggest that integration and MH/SUD services are highly valued among all staff types, and that staff are uniformly interested in further MH/SUD training. However, there were significant differences in staff perceptions. MH/SUD staff and services were valued by PCPs more than MH/SUD staff perceived being valued by PCPs, and MH/SUD staff were less likely to agree that communication with PCPs was good. Information seemed to flow better from MH/SUD staff to PCPs than in the other direction.

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