TEC Success Story: Public Health Authority 101

In this video presentation to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) Tribal Technical Advisory Group (TTAG) Data Subcommittee on May 23, 2023, Meghan O’Connell, MD, MPH (Chief Public Health Officer of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board) and Chris Alibrandi O’Connor, JD (Deputy Director, Mid-States Region Office for The Network for Public Health Law) share the legal basis for Tribal Epidemiology Center’s (TEC) access to protected health information for public health purposes.

With the reauthorization of the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act in 2010, TECs were designated as “public health authorities” which allows TECs the same access to protected health information/data for public health purposes as other public health authorities, like state health departments.

These activities were supported through a variety of funding opportunities including the coordination and collaboration activities made possible by the Indian Health Service and the CDC’s Tribal Epidemiology Centers Public Health Infrastructure program, National Center for Chronic Disease and Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Tribes Program.

TEC Public Health Authority 101

For more information about each of the 12 TECs, visit https://tribalepicenters.org/12-tecs/.

TEC News

Tribal EpiCenters

09/28/2023

TEC Success Story: Public Health Authority 101