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Senators health care data privacy HHS letter overview:
- Who: Thirty U.S. senators have written a letter addressed to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
- Why: The lawmakers implored Becerra and HHS to strengthen federal health privacy laws in order to prevent medical providers from turning health information over to law enforcement agencies wanting to use it for abortion investigations following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
- Where: Nationwide.
Thirty U.S. senators have implored the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure medical providers can’t — without a patient’s explicit consent — provide health information to police wanting to use it to aid in post-Dobbs abortion investigations.
In a letter addressed to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday, the senators urged the agency to act fast to strengthen federal health care data privacy laws following the Supreme Court’s June decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.
“Our nation faces a crisis in access to reproductive health services, and some states have already begun to investigate and punish women seeking abortion care,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers asked the HHS to “take immediate action” to both “strengthen education on and enforcement of federal health privacy protections,” and “initiate the rulemaking process to augment privacy protections.”
Strengthening and updating Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations in order to “ restrict regulated entities from sharing individuals’ reproductive health information without explicit consent” was at the center of the lawmakers request of the HHS.
Senators implore HHS to ‘take all available action’ to protect privacy of women seeking medical care
The lawmakers singled out restricting the use of sensitive health information to assist in “law enforcement, civil, or criminal proceedings premised on the provision of abortion care.”
“It is critical that HHS take all available action to fully protect women’s privacy and their ability to safely and confidentially seek medical care,” the senators wrote.
A total of 29 Democrats — including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — were among the 30 senators who attached their name to the letter, which argued healthcare providers have had to rush to “adapt to the immense confusion, fear, and upheaval this ruling has caused.”
The issue of healthcare data privacy has been at the forefront since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization opinion, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion that had been established with Roe v. Wade.
Last month, police in Nebraska subpoenaed Facebook to acquire access to private Facebook messages that were used to aid in charges filed against a mother and daughter accused of performing an illegal abortion.
Also last month, Bloomberg reported Heartbeat International — an anti-abortion nonprofit organization — had for years been collecting abortion data from pro-life resource centers.
Do you believe the HHS should broaden HIPAA regulations in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to abortion? Let us know in the comments.
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