Biden moves to shield patients' abortion records from GOP threats
Source: Washington Post
Biden moves to shield patients' abortion records from GOP threats
By Dan Diamond and Rachel Roubein
April 22, 2024 at 11:35 a.m. EDT
The Biden administration on Monday announced new rules intended to protect the privacy of patients seeking abortions, and the health workers who may have provided them, from Republican prosecutors who have threatened to crack down on the procedure. (1) ... The rules strengthen a nearly 30-year-old health privacy law -- known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA -- to offer more robust legal protections to those who obtain or provide reproductive health care in a state where it is legal to do so. The final policy prohibits physicians, insurers and other health-care organizations from disclosing health information to state officials for the purposes of conducting an investigation, filing a lawsuit or prosecuting a patient or provider. It covers women who cross state lines to legally terminate a pregnancy and those who qualify for an exception to their state's abortion ban, such as in cases of rape, incest or a medical emergency.
Under previous rules, organizations were allowed to disclose private medical information to law enforcement in certain cases, such as a criminal investigation. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said they had heard from patients and providers who were confused about their legal risks or had even deferred care amid GOP threats in the nearly two dozen states with abortion restrictions. ... "People feel scared to confide in their providers. People are worried in this new climate about how their medical information might be used," said Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the civil rights office at HHS, which revamped the rules. "The goal here is to reinstate trust into the provider medical relationship. ... The goal here is that people don't stay home if they're too scared to get care."
Monday's announcement is the latest effort by the Biden administration intended to safeguard reproductive health care, a central element of President Biden's reelection bid. However, the swell of criminal prosecutions that many abortion rights advocates and Democrats feared hasn't materialized since the Supreme Court's ruling nearly two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. State abortion bans explicitly exempt those seeking abortions from prosecution.
But doctors can face steep fines and jail time, and many health workers have said they are confused about the current legal landscape governing abortion access, such as whether a federal emergency care law takes priority over state abortion bans, as the Biden administration has argued. HHS and reproductive rights advocates have also cited cases such as the arrest of Brittany Watts as examples of the need for stronger privacy protections. Watts, an Ohio medical receptionist, has said she miscarried at home last year and told a nurse, who then reported the situation to police.
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By Dan Diamond
Dan Diamond is a national health reporter for The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 2021 after five years at Politico, where he won a George Polk award for investigating the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Twitter https://twitter.com/ddiamond
By Rachel Roubein
Rachel Roubein is a national health-care reporter for The Washington Post and author of The Health 202 newsletter, a daily morning tipsheet focused on health policy and politics. Twitter https://twitter.com/rachel_roubein
(1) https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/04/22/biden-harris-administration-issues-new-rule-support-reproductive-health-care-privacy-under-hipaa.html
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04/22/abortion-medical-records-patients-biden-hipaa/
Hat tip, 50 Shades Of Blue
1. K & R! Here's a gift link to the article - hope it works!
Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)
Mon Apr 22, 2024, 11:47 AM
https://wapo.st/3Qe3Cyn
= new reply since forum marked as read
