State Health Laws Apply Despite HIPAA Privacy Rule Rollback, Say Lawyers
While there were significant implications for compliance when a federal court in June vacated most of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (see 2506200057), HIPAA-regulated entities shouldn't rush to remove all reproductive health-related policies, said Robinson + Cole lawyers in a Monday blog post.
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“In many cases, state laws regarding reproductive health disclosure still apply,” the lawyers said, citing measures in California, Connecticut and Rhode Island that “cover the disclosure of reproductive health care information.” The goal of “many such state laws is protecting reproductive health information in response to out-of-state legal requests,” they added.
“Whether HIPAA will ever again create enhanced protections for reproductive health information remains in question,” but “what is certain is that states will continue to regulate reproductive health care privacy,” the Robinson + Cole lawyers said. “Organizations may wish to assess how they handle requests related to reproductive health information and prepare for further individual state regulatory and judicial developments in this space.”
A Davis Wright blog post on June 25 noted that “regulated entities still need to comply with the remainder of the Privacy Rule's restrictions on disclosures of PHI” in addition to applicable state laws. Plus, “with the 2024 Rule vacated, additional states may pass laws to shield information about reproductive health care from disclosure.”
Meanwhile, Seyfarth lawyer Caroline Pieper recommended covered entities revisit their HIPAA documents following the court’s decision “to determine whether any updates are needed.”