WASHINGTON (BP) – The Biden Administration is considering a rule change that could affect private health information shared by health care agencies. The proposed change is in response to the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, according to the Department for Health and Human Services.
“The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization(Dobbs) makes it more likely than before that individuals’ PHI (public health information) may be disclosed in ways that cause harm to the interests that HIPAA seeks to protect but that are not adequately addressed in this context, such as criminal, civil, or administrative investigations or proceedings that chill access to lawful health care and full communication between individuals and health care providers,” a summary statement from HHS said.
According to the HHS website, “The Rule (HIPAA) requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of protected health information and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without an individual’s authorization.”
Even more, “The Rule also gives individuals rights over their protected health information, including rights to examine and obtain a copy of their health records, to direct a covered entity to transmit to a third party an electronic copy of their protected health information in an electronic health record, and to request corrections,” the HHS site says.
The Notice of Public Rulemaking (NPRM) was open for public comment until June 16.
Brent Leatherwood, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) president, took issue with the proposed change in a June 16 letter sent to the HHS.
He believes the proposed rule change cuts the legs out of from under the Dobbs decision and puts a patient’s private information at risk.
“The Supreme Court held in Dobbs that a presumption of legitimacy should be given to state laws. It held that ‘the Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion’ and thus ‘returns that authority to the people and their elected representatives,’” he wrote.
“This rule ignores the Court’s ruling in Dobbs and openly flouts Congress’s intent in HIPPA,” Hannah Daniel, ERLC policy manager, told Baptist Press in written comments.
Leatherwood believes the proposed change could inadvertently put abuse victims at risk.
“And yet it seems that under the NPRM, if a minor arrives at a clinic for an abortion with their abuser acting as their personal representative, the provider could no longer make the mandatory report to state child protection entities if the evidence for the abuse is discovered in the course of that visit, and the provider would still be compelled to give the protected health information to the abuser, thus robbing an innocent preborn child of their right to live and protecting an abuser,” Leatherwood wrote.
ERLC policy manager Hannah Daniel told Baptist Press, “This new rule from HHS not only denies the personhood of the preborn and conflates the horror of abortion with ‘health care,’ but it also enables abusers to perpetrate violence towards women and children.”
The letter from Leatherwood says, “HIPAA, in statute, clearly allows for the reporting of abuse. This new rule would interfere with clear congressional intent. In addition to depriving a preborn child of their right to life, criminal activity, such as incest, statutory rape, or trafficking, is often discovered during an abortion.”
He believes the rule would force a provider to choose between complying with the new rule or following the mandate to report suspected child abuse.
Daniel told Baptist Press: “It is a harmful rule that strips away important protections for the abused in furtherance of the Biden administration’s radical abortion agenda, and we urge the Department to retract it.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Brandon Porter serves as Associate Vice President for Convention News at the SBC Executive Committee.)
