We've been here in this a lot lately.
Well, at least since last week.
The theme around the conversation of
Idaho's new abortion law seems to be.
I don't know, there's a lot we don't know.
There's a lot of unknowns.
It's an answer we continue to
get on a variety of questions,
and we ask a variety of people who
are supposed to know how Idaho's
new laws will work. And sure,
there is some time to figure it all out,
but still, there are and might
be a lot of unanswered questions.
We see those questions every day,
like this one.
Linda wrote us and said,
does HIPAA provide any support for
privacy against the new abortion?
Laws, especially allowing family
members to sue a provider well,
Linda has been the only
one to ask this question.
If HIPAA protections could prevent
investigations into illegal
abortions in Idaho when that law
goes into effect later this summer,
there might be some new rules in play.
HIPAA, the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act,
does protect the release
of medical information,
but how far does that go?
Is this something that could
really complicate Idaho's new law?
Joe Pera spoke with a Boise expert on
HIPAA and how it could interact with.
The state's new abortion law.
One
Idaho's abortion laws
changed later this summer.
Sensitive medical information will
be at the center of the conversation.
Idaho's law will outlaw almost all abortions,
creating a situation where there
could be investigations into
possible illegal abortions.
There are questions.
How will that look investigating
private medical information like the
circumstances around an abortion
can be sensitive and difficult.
Some are asking if Idahoans can
cite HIPAA protections to avoid
investigations if they find
themselves in that situation.
The EPA does not apply
directly to the patient's hip.
Only applies to healthcare providers
who engage in certain electronic
transactions and health plans,
including employer benefit health plans.
So the patient can't necessarily
hide behind HIPAA because
HIPPA doesn't cover them,
doesn't apply to them.
Holland and Hart Law firm where he's
the head of the Health Law Group.
He explains HIPAA,
the health insurance portability
and Accountability Act of 1996.
It doesn't apply to individuals.
It covers healthcare providers and how
they need to protect patient health info.
The provider and the health plan
and their business associates would
be prevented from disclosing any
protected health information unless
they fit within a HIPAA exception.
And there's different HIPPA
exceptions that may or may not apply
depending on the circumstances.
Planes HIPAA does prevent the
release of medical records,
but HIPAA only goes so far.
It's not an absolute block
in all cases. Certainly
if the police are law enforcement
or investigator if they go to court
and get a warrant or a subpoena,
then HIPPA would allow the
disclosure or compliance consistent
with the court order or warrant,
although for subpoenas there's some
additional steps that the law enforcement
would have to jump through before
they could access the information.
If there was a situation where Doctor was
brought into court in a suspected case.
The legal abortion and no subpoena
or anything of that matter has been
made to access medical records.
That doctor can only say so much.
HIPAA protects patients if no exception
has been made like a court order.
They would have to do it under HIPAA.
HIPPA would prevent them from
disclosing the information unless
the HIPPA exception applies,
but it's not too hard to satisfy
one of those hippie exceptions.
If the law enforcement goes and
gets a court order or warrant that
requires that a physician to go
ahead and make the disclosure.
Was not designed to be used as
a way to dodge investigations.
Rather it's simply to protect information
was to protect health information,
but you have to balance that against
the need of law enforcement to enforce
crimes to enforce the existing laws.
And so HIPAA tries to balance that by
creating certain exceptions that would
allow the the law enforcement to access
information without court involvement.
But aside from those,
it always leaves open the option for
the court to go or for a law enforcement
to get a court order or warrant,
just like they would in any
other criminal investigation.
So to summarize, yes,
HIPAA prevents health care providers
from releasing information,
but there are clearly defined
limits and exceptions when
it comes to law enforcement.
Law enforcement officers can
get around HIPAA by getting
a warrant or a court order,
or sitting in with one or the
other exceptions, so they can't.
They can't cite HIPAA just to
ignore a court order or warrant.
So, as we've highlighted in this discussion,
really since last Friday,
there's a lot of unknowns,
but we do have the answer
now for the HIPAA situation,
but we see all your questions every
evening here on the 208 and a lot
of them we are putting into our file
to get them answered when we talk to
experts in the legal and the medical,
and even the judicial field.
Right now, a lot of them say there
needs to be conversations over
the next 30 to 60 days to really
get all of this flattened out.
And Brian is something that
we heard from Mr Stanger.
There is,
they're also looking for some guidance
from the Idaho Attorney General's Office.
On how specifically to maybe take
a look at some of this in court,
or take a look at how this
could be investigated.
All of this is of course complicated by
the fact that there's another state law,
the civil enforcement mechanism
that we've talked about,
allowing family members to be sued.
That's still caught up in
the Idaho Supreme Court.
So whether that gets decided soon or not,
we'll find out that the whole thing is,
it's very common.