Posted on 04/24/2024 12:06:47 AM PDT by Morgana
Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new rule on Monday cracking down on prosecutors’ ability to obtain abortion records.
The rule strengthens a 1996 privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), by providing protections for those seeking an abortion, as well as those who perform the procedure, according to a HHS press release. The new provision takes aim at the various red states that have imposed abortion restrictions since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Many Americans are scared their private medical information will be being shared, misused, and disclosed without permission,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “This has a chilling effect on women visiting a doctor, picking up a prescription from a pharmacy, or taking other necessary actions to support their health.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration is providing stronger protections to people seeking lawful reproductive health care regardless of whether the care is in their home state or if they must cross state lines to get it. With reproductive health under attack by some lawmakers, these protections are more important than ever,” Becerra added.
The Biden administration first announced its plans in April 2023 to help protect women who are traveling out of state for an abortion from investigation. HIPAA had allowed for the disclosure of some health information to law enforcement officials.
Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, said that following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, health care providers have voiced concerns over whether the records of their patients who travel to see them will be requested.
“Patients and providers are scared, and it impedes their ability to get and to provide accurate information and access safe and legal health care,” Fontes Rainer said in a statement. “Today’s rule prohibits the use of protected health information for seeking or providing lawful reproductive health care and helps maintain and improve patient-provider trust that will lead to improved health outcomes and protect patient privacy.”
The rule follows an Arizona Supreme Court decision allowing an 1864 law to take effect that prohibits abortion in all cases except for when the life of the mother is at risk. Abortion will likely be on the ballot in the battleground state this fall, potentially joining Florida, New York and Maryland.
Meanwhile, Medicare gets hacked and God knows how many SSN’s are now being used by the illegals flooding over the border.
Yeah. So worried about the misuse of our medical data.
But it was okay to be public with who had Covid jabs…
[HIPAA]
A couple of decades ago I had to transmit patient data to WebMD.
First for a test. That was shipped on DVD via FedEx.
Then, a routine data transmittal to their node, on regular intervals.
From the beginning, I insisted they get encryption, which they did and I encrypted all data prior to the DVD and the regular transmission of data.
So there would be no decoding of the data without WebMD’s private encryption key (which was only on their side).
We, as a partner, were using their public encryption key.
It worked out well. I did what I could.
Made up rules aren’t law.
The drive to murder innocents won’t stop with abortion. Next up: the administrative state decides who is not worthy of treatment and euthanizes folks.
I heard many, many, shockingly many conversations about withholding care for the unvaccinated. These conversations were from leadership to doctors to the sweet nurse taking care of grandma.
#EarnMyProlifeVote
"Made up rules aren’t law."
Especially when they seek to expand the scope of the actual law itself beyond patient privacy.
Ahhh....rules take precedent over ‘laws’....got it.
The [exclusively leftist] Rule of Law[fare].
this is an abuse of the HIPPA law.
just who is going to ask for someones medical records ummm
dr’s hospitals, pharmcy and health insurance claims processing stall are all drilled that you dont talk about any protected health information and pretected personal information.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.