Chris, J.D., focuses on legal issues related to the collection, maintenance, use, and storage of data for public health purposes. She also provides legal technical assistance and training related to legal issues around data, using plain English to relay often complex concepts and break down the inaccessibility of legal information.
The granddaughter of four immigrants and influenced by their experiences , Chris chose careers focused on mission-driven work. She served on the political organizing staff of ACORN, then directed a state chapter of the National Lawyers Guild in Boston where she co-founded and led a Street Law Clinic for youth on their 4th Amendment rights when stopped by police. After law school she joined Atlanta Legal Aid, initially representing clients in housing conditions cases then public benefits, domestic violence, and other civil matters, ultimately managing a community branch office. She later represented immigrants in tax controversies as the coordinator of a Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic and trained clients on US taxpayer rights and responsibilities. Transitioning to practicing health law, she became a SME on the Affordable Care Act for a dental benefits company and later its privacy officer and director of health policy, leading its compliance program and lobbying for greater recognition of oral health’s role in overall health. Most recently she was Privacy Legal Counsel and Director of Solutions Integration on a CMS-funded DSRIP (Medicaid waiver) project in New Hampshire, connecting the legal issues in data sharing with the technical ones. The overall project resulted in improved care coordination for patients/clients regionally and greater health data sharing among local clinical, social service, education, criminal justice, and other sectors.
Chris assisted in the development of the health sector section of the NH Endowment for Health’s multi-sector Action Plan as part of its “Race & Equity in NH Series: Building Foundations for a More Equitable Future for All”. Her other recent volunteer work has included providing humanitarian relief and legal information to detained immigrants, annually judging high school civics competitions, and coordinating fundraising for her daughter’s school music program.
Chris received her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, MA and bachelor’s degrees in sociology and marketing from UMass/Amherst. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts, Georgia, and New Hampshire and is the mom of a fledgling adult. She regularly sends up thanks for the people who’ve given her all the opportunities above that not only put food on the table, but also fed her soul.
Articles & Resources
Public health agencies often find access to substance use disorder (SUD) data records especially challenging. Through the CARES Act, Congress harmonizes certain provisions of HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2 —both of which governs disclosure of SUD records —and requires that HHS continue these efforts through rulemaking.
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This Fact Sheet summarizes the key proposed provisions, identifies those which provide greater alignment with the HIPAA Rules, and calls out some areas on which HHS is specifically soliciting comments (due January 31, 2023). Of particular interest to the public health community, the Fact Sheet also presents the proposed changes to the data de-identification standard for disclosures of Part 2 data made to public health authorities.
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Overview November 30, 2022 | 1 – 2:30 p.m. ESTOften, a data-sharing project doesn’t come to an attorney’s attention until the attorney is asked to…
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Overview November 16, 2022 | 1 – 2:30 p.m. ESTData sharing, particularly cross-sector data sharing, is easier said than done. Inflexible and out-of-touch data laws…
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Attend this webinar, sponsored by the Network and All In: Data for Community Health, to learn about a new Consent Service Utility pilot project to modernize the consent process and enable use across sectors.
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Often a patient wants a health care provider to share her Protected Health Information (PHI) with a social service organization (SSO) for support that directly or indirectly relates to her health. A provider’s efforts to obtain written authorization to release PHI often delays a patient’s access to SSO support. That delay is compounded when the patient has to physically go to the provider’s office to sign the authorization, a challenge or even an impossibility for some individuals. This process to obtain patient authorization also takes precious clinical time from healthcare providers and their staff. What is often misunderstood is that sharing PHI for care coordination purposes does not require written authorization under HIPAA Privacy Rule.
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