While the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is best known for shielding patient health information, it may not be as protective of medical privacy as you may think.
With last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade clearing the way for states to restrict access to abortion care, activists are scouring federal laws to help protect abortion rights across the country.
However, the privacy rule allows the use and disclosure of protected health information without the patient’s knowledge or consent in certain situations — like when law enforcement is involved, for public health activities, or during judicial and administrative proceedings.Medical privacy may also be denied in situations of abuse, neglect or domestic violence; organ donation; research; workers compensation; and essential government functions.
"Generally, state laws do not require doctors or other health care providers to report an individual who self-managed the loss of a pregnancy to law enforcement," the guidance said.For example, most period-tracking apps and crisis pregnancy centers are not protected by HIPAA because they don’t participate in a federal health care program. This means a person’s medical information could be released to anyone – not just law enforcement – without their consent or knowledge.
“People need to not go off the street to a provider they don’t know,” she said. They “need to network about who they trust because it’s quite serious.”In many cases, HIPAA does not protect health information from law enforcement. But experts say legislators in some states are working to strengthen medical privacy laws for those who want to travel for abortion care.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see Missouri and other states try to enforce it and use that as a deterrent to prevent a lot of people from traveling for abortion," Nathan Cortez, a Southern Methodist University law professor who specializes in health law,To protect out-of-state residents, legal experts say some states with access to abortion are strengthening their medical privacy laws so providers can’t be compelled to release health information to law enforcement from other states.
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