The Biden administration on Monday announced a rule seeking to strengthen privacy protections around health records, including for patients who travel to obtain reproductive health services, such as abortions, in states where it is legal. The move, officials said, aims to help protect patients and providers from legal action against them.
The final rule issued Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, prohibits health care providers, health insurance plans and clearing houses and their business associates from providing a person’s health information to law enforcement or state officials for the purposes of conducting an investigation or imposing liability on the person or provider.
The new rule builds on the long-standing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, which created national standards around the protection of patient’s health information.
“That's what today is about, is making sure that Americans who convey very personal, private health information to a provider know that they have rights,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a press conference on Monday. “And if someone tries to extract that from you in coercive ways, or creative ways, please recognize we can take action.”
Melanie Fontes Rainer, the director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Health and Human Services department, said Monday’s rule is designed to bolster privacy protections for women who travel out of state to receive an abortion or other reproductive services. If a woman crosses state lines to receive an abortion in a state where the practice is legal, Rainer said, the woman’s medical records and information will be protected when she returns home to a state where it is not.
“The provider in the state where she traveled will also be protected from folks reaching in to go after that type of medical care, which is one of the main goals of this rule so that women can seek care even in the face of the patchwork of laws we have now across the country,” Rainer said.
Monday’s announcement marks the Biden administration’s latest attempt to protect access to reproductive services following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which turned the issue of whether and how much to restrict abortion back to the states and triggered restrictions and bans on the practice throughout the country.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has put the issue front-and-center as the Democratic incumbent seeks another four years in the White House. Democrats credit the issue with a stronger-than-expected showing in the 2022 congressional midterm elections and in states – even ruby red ones like Kansas and Ohio – where the issue has appeared on the ballot since Roe’s overturning, voters have chosen to keep the practice more widely accessible.
White House Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein called Monday’s announcement “an important step forward in our fight to ensure patient privacy and peace of mind.”
“Because no one should have their medical records used against them, their doctor or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care,” she added.
Klein, Becarra and Rainer were joined by local board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Serina Floyd to make the announcement at the Health and Human Services headquarters on Monday.