Nineteen Republican attorneys general are asking the Biden administration to withdraw a proposed change to medical privacy laws that would ban doctors from reporting suspected abortions to law enforcement. The attorneys general argue the change would interfere with states’ authority to enforce their own abortion laws. They claim the administration is pushing a false narrative that states are treating pregnant women as criminals. The proposed rule would prevent states from investigating people who help others obtain abortions. The Republican attorneys general threaten to sue the administration if it moves forward with the proposed HIPAA rule change.
HIPAA only applies to a small subset of people/entities. It requires that subset to be careful with healthcare data. So if a doctor gives you a diagnosis, HIPAA requires the doctor treat that information carefully. If you share that same exact information with your electrician, and then the electrician shares that same exact information with her seamstress, your electrician has not violated HIPAA because you disclosed it to someone that isn’t considered a “covered entity.” HIPAA is far more about regulating who or where the disclosure comes from, than it is about the substance of the information.