What Does a Post-Roe Era mean for Health Informatics and Patient Privacy Laws?

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and transferred the power to each individual state to determine their own abortion laws. 

However, what does this mean for those of us in the health informatics world? 

Given that abortion will likely be a criminal offence in certain states, if not already due to things like trigger bans, the question about the salience of HIPAA has surfaced in a few articles. I’ll link them below for further reading. 

From what I gather, it would appear that HIPAA, as it currently stands, may not be sufficient in an increasingly digital world. Key highlights include: 1) reidentification of previously de-identified data sets when combined with publicly available information, 2) access to medical records by law enforcement without a warrant under certain scenarios, and 3) data generated outside of your typical “covered entities” (e.g. social media, apps) per HIPAA can likely be easily discovered. 

As these realizations come to light, there have been proposals for strengthened protections for reproductive data. Most noticeably, U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Representative Sara Jacbs (D-Calif.) have introduced the My Body, My Data Act that aims to minimize the information that companies can collect from apps (e.g. period tracking apps). Though, Frank Baitman and Carol Robinson say these efforts may be insufficient and suggests protections should mirror the more rigid regulations like SAMHSA. 

Nevertheless, I’ll be following along as the challenge of interoperability needs to consider availability and privacy - among many other things. 

Read more:

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/24/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-u-s-2/

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/04/abortion-digital-privacy/

3. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/opinion-its-time-congress-change-health-privacy-rules

4. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/28/1055044/big-tech-data-privacy-supreme-court-dobbs-abortion/

5. https://msmagazine.com/2022/06/23/reproductive-health-my-body-my-data-act/