By If/When/How
In 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services passed a medical privacy rule pertaining to HIPAA. The 2024 Rule built upon the privacy protection rule that the Department enacted in 2000, which established basic confidentiality protections for patients’ health information, making it more difficult for police to access medical records just to investigate someone for accessing lawful reproductive care. That meant that, for example, if you were pregnant and had a miscarriage or other medical emergency that required abortion care, police couldn’t force your doctors to turn over your medical records to go looking for a crime.
Last year, a Texas doctor named Carmen Purl sued HHS over the new 2024 Rule. Recently, Judge Kacsmaryk ruled in her favor and overturned the 2024 Rule. While this is scary news, it’s unsurprising.
This is just one of four lawsuits filed challenging the 2024 Rule. One of the remaining lawsuits also threatens another HIPAA rule from 2000 which established basic confidentiality protections for patients’ health information, like ensuring that most protected health information cannot be shared without patient consent.