HIPAA Privacy Protections for PHI related to Reproductive Health Care: The Final Rule and what Covered Entities and Business Associates need to Know
Lexology April 25, 2024
Earlier this week, the Biden-Harris Administration, through the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a Final Rule aimed at protecting protected health information (PHI) related to lawfully provided reproductive health care services. As we discussed last year, the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy was proposed in response to concerns about the confidentiality of PHI related to reproductive health care following the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In the executive summary of the Final Rule, OCR emphasized that the changing post-Dobbs legal landscape “increases the likelihood that an individual’s PHI may be disclosed in ways that cause harm to the interests that HIPAA seeks to protect, including the trust of individuals in health care...