Final HIPAA Privacy Rule Adds New Protections for Reproductive Health Care Data

What Privacy Protections for Reproductive Health Care Does the New Rule Include? The new rule makes several clarifications about how HIPAA applies to reproductive health care data, while underscoring that the same principles that undergird the entire HIPAA privacy framework apply to the new protections as well. [...] The clarifications to the HIPAA privacy rule do not prohibit release of reproductive health data in response to a subpoena or court order when the data request is related to unlawful receipt or provision of reproductive health care (i.e., data related to receipt of an abortion in a state that bans abortions before a certain gestational age). [...] What Privacy Protections for Reproductive Health Care Does the New Rule Include? The new rule makes several clarifications about how HIPAA applies to reproductive health care data, while underscoring that the same principles that undergird the entire HIPAA privacy framework apply to the new protections as well. [...] o When reproductive health care is legal in the state in which it is obtained Example: Reproductive health care is legally obtained in a state where abortion is legal, and the investigation originates in the state the patient lives where the service would have been illegal. [...] The clarifications to the HIPAA privacy rule do not prohibit release of reproductive health data in response to a subpoena or court order when the data request is related to unlawful receipt or provision of reproductive health care (i.e., data related...