Unauthorized Disclosures Of Therapy Notes. Violation Of Law

I have a question below. There are a number of advocacy groups having concerns regarding the actions of behavioral healthcare providers on video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY-Xl2jVX6w ) violating state law N.J.S.A. 45:15BB-13 and state regulation N.J.A.C. 13:44G-12.4 (b)(2). Specifically, these behavioral healthcare providers on video are releasing the private conversation notes between therapist and patient (therapy notes) in response to some type of nationwide audit called "quality assurance review" or "risk assurance review" being run by Medicaid, Medicare and ACA plans, including advantage plans in violation of these state laws.

Many attorneys have told me that state law N.J.S.A 45:15BB-13 is more stringent and therefor supersedes all of the CMS general and contract provisions reference in 42 CFR § 422 as well as all of the HIPAA provisions reference in 45 CFR § 160, 162, and 164.

In addition, these federal provisions do not require the disclosure of PHI, but merely permits the disclosure of PHI. For instance, the provisions of HIPAA and CMS uses the words "may disclose PHI", "permitted to disclose PHI" or "may evaluate" where as state law N.J.S.A 45 :15BB-13 clearly uses the words "... shall not be required to disclose any confidential information that the social worker may have acquired from a client ...".

On the other hand, state regulation N.J.A.C. 13:44G-12.3 uses the words "(a) ... except in the following circumstances. (1) disclosure is required by federal or state law or regulation ". However, I do not see any federal or state law or regulation that a disclosure of confidential information in N.J.S.A 45: 15BB-13 is required.

With that being said, I have one question:

1. What federal or state law or regulation requires (not permits) the disclosure of confidential information in N.J.S.A 45:15BB-13?

Thank you,

TheLawOfCare