HIPAA Just Went Out The Window.

HIPAA otherwise known as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that protects your medical records from prying eyes just became moot.

HIPAA won’t protect you if prosecutors want your reproductive health records
STAT
By Eric Boodman , Tara Bannow , Bob Herman, and Casey Ross
June 24, 2022


With Roe v. Wade now overturned, patients are wondering whether federal laws will shield their reproductive health data from state law enforcement, or legal action more broadly. The answer, currently, is no.

If there’s a warrant, court order, or subpoena for the release of those medical records, then a clinic could be required to hand them over. And patients and providers may be made legally vulnerable by the enormous trail of health-related data we all generate through their devices every day.

[…]

HIPAA in a post-Roe world

“People think HIPAA protects a lot more health information than it actually does,” said Kayte Spector-Bagdady, a professor of bioethics and law at the University of Michigan.

She said the federal privacy rule contains exceptions that could allow prosecutors to compel businesses to relinquish information relevant to a criminal investigation — and the same is true for other kinds of legal action, too. In other words, in a state that has outlawed abortion, HIPAA wouldn’t necessarily keep records of the procedure from being used as evidence.

So in other words the government can paw through your most private health records.

Being this a trans blog I have think how will this affect trans students in states where trans healthcare is banned?

HIPAA at Odds With New Laws on Gender-Affirming Care
Renal & Urology News
By John Schieszer, MA
March 24, 2022


A growing number of states are enacting laws that could deprive LGBTQ people of medically appropriate gender-affirming care. These laws could require health care providers to release protected health information (PHI) in violation of HIPAA rules. 

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) on March 2, 2022, issued new guidance on gender-affirming care, civil rights, and patient privacy. Providers who may be concerned about their obligations to disclose information concerning gender-affirming care should seek additional legal guidance regarding their legal responsibilities and other laws, according to OCR.

[...]

The Endocrine Society said it is alarmed at the criminalization of transgender medicine. It is condemning the directive by Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordering the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate any reported instances of Texas children receiving gender-affirming care as “child abuse.” The policy rejects evidence-based transgender medical care and will restrict access to care for teenagers experiencing gender incongruence or dysphoria, according to the society. Health care providers should not be punished for providing evidence-based care that is supported by major international medical groups.

The society asserts that medical evidence, not politics, should inform treatment decisions. It is calling on policymakers to rescind these types of directives and allow physicians to provide evidence-based care. The American Association of Clinical Endocrinology strongly opposed legislation that limits access of patients with endocrine problems to established medical therapies. The association believes decisions impacting health care are best left to the health professional, the patient, and the patient’s family, just like all medical care.

So now we have state prosecutors digging into our health records and the doctors have to worry about big brother looking over their shoulders.

For school children there is Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that protects student records.

School district approves guidelines to out trans students to classmates’ parents
In order to support "parental rights," trans kids will be outed to the parents of their classmates so that the classmates can get a "reasonable accommodation."
LGBTQ Nation
By John Russell
July 6, 2022


A Florida school board unanimously approved a new set of guidelines that critics say would allow school officials to out trans and non-binary students to the parents of their classmates.

The Leon County School Board’s recently adopted “LGBTQ Inclusive School Guide” is intended to provide guidance for teachers and administrators to help queer students. But the document contains a provision requiring the school to notify parents if a student who is “open about their gender identity” is in a physical education class or will be present on an overnight trip.

While the guide notes that all students must be allowed to access locker rooms and restrooms consistent with their gender identity, the provision is meant to allow the parents of other students to request “reasonable accommodation options” for their cisgender children.

So what FERPA does is,

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. 

I added the bold print.

I’m not a lawyer but I would think that tell other parents that there is a trans student would fall under “personally identifiable information.”

GOP passes bill aiming to root out ‘suspected’ transgender female athletes with genital inspection
Ohio Capital Journal
By: Morgan Trau
June 3, 2022


House Republican lawmakers in Ohio passed a bill at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday night that would ban transgender girls and women from participating in high school and college athletics. It also comes with a “verification process” of checking the genitals of those “accused” of being trans.

he ‘Save Women’s Sports Act,’ or House Bill 61, wasn’t supposed to be on the schedule for legislators originally. However, at the last minute, Republican representatives added the language to a completely different bill.

H.B. 151 would revise Ohio’s Teacher Residency Program, trying to reduce state control in schools. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Don Jones, from Freeport, got a surprise addition.

[…]

“Having this third bill now slipped into an unrelated bill at the last moment is just such an additional slap in the face to our entire community,” Maria Bruno, legislative policy director for Equality Ohio, said. “I know that there are a lot of folks in the LGBTQ community who are sitting there asking themselves, ‘What did I do to them? because they keep coming after me’ and I can’t blame them for having that perspective.

“But the answer is nothing, just existing.”

In later news articles they say the bill has been pulled because of the backlash.

But it goes to show you that the Republicans are think about doing such foul things and not even caring about the ramifications of the law. Who they are going after are students who do not look like their gender, they are attacking any girl who doesn’t “look” female and they don’t care who they hurt.

The Republicans want to paw through your most private medical records seeing what dirt they can dig up. The Supreme Court ruled that we do not have a right to privacy and these anti-abortion laws and anti-trans laws show that our invasion of privacy has begun.