Central registries: What are they? Part 1

For the first time in years — decades — light was shed on central registries last month. Central registries were created to prevent dual enrollment in opioid treatment programs (OTPs). States which had central registries at all, managed them or contracted them out. Central registries were born of the confidentiality rule, 42 CFR Part 2, making an exemption for sharing patient information so that patients would not go to more than one methadone program at a time. And for decades they went along doing their job (especially in New York state, where the central registry is ironclad in terms of protecting patient data).