In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on July 1, Senators Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., called on HHS to use its powers to ensure the HIPAA Privacy Rule is better positioned to protect the health information of patients seeking reproductive healthcare, reports Healthcaree IT News.
The Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade has created “profound uncertainty for patients concerning their right to privacy when making the deeply personal decision to have an abortion,” said the senators.
As policy experts have noted, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision has ushered in not just a fraught new era for reproductive health, but also one for data privacy.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule – which healthcare organizations have called to be modernized for years, even before the recent SCOTUS ruling – is now insufficient to protect the health information of patients. Read more.
