Nearly one year after Roe v. Wade overturned, AGs ask Feds to increase HIPAA protections – By Amaris Encinas (USA Today) / June 23, 2023
A coalition of attorneys general offered support early last week for additional HIPAA protections set forth by the Department of Health and Human Services to keep reproductive health care data safer nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The 21-page letter, addressed to Secretary Xavier Becerra, responds to a request for comment posed by DHHS on April 17 about its proposal to modify the “privacy rule” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 also known as HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH Act, according to the Federal Register.
It urges the Department to move swiftly towards implementation and apply the fourth month standard compliance date as “existing privacy protections have not kept up with rapid technological advances and fail to contemplate circumstances in which basic health care is subject to civil liability and criminal penalties,” according to the letter.
