SubscribeUnlike the European Union, the United States does not have a federal data privacy law like the General Data Protection Regulation. State attorneys general, however, are cracking down on data breaches at healthcare organizations, according to this For the Record article.
Health Insurance Patient Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Texas Abortion-related Litigation ‘just getting started’
It was a busy end of August for abortion-related litigation in Texas. Multiple pro-reproductive justice nonprofit groups sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other prosecutors to protect the ability of pregnant Texans to obtain abortions in outside states, and Texas’ new trigger ban law went into effect. In this MedCity News article, McDermott Partner Caroline Reignley notes how the US Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision “did not end the debate over abortion or limit court intervention.”
Want to Provide Abortion Travel Benefits at Your Company? Here’s How to Protect Employees
How can companies provide abortion travel benefits to their workers without disclosing sensitive medical information? In this Corporate Counsel article, McDermott’s Sarah Raaii provides insight into how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) offer protections for workers seeking reproductive healthcare services.
“The most common way that we’ve seen employers offering these abortion benefits is to include them in their existing ERISA health plans, in which case they [the plans] would be subject to HIPAA,” Raaii said.
A Practical Guide to Conducting a HIPAA Security Risk Analysis
How do organizations go about conducting a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security risk analysis (HRSA)? In this Health Law Weekly article, McDermott Partner Ryan S. Higgins provides a step-by-step guide to conducting an HRSA and offers practical guidance to address the key issues effectively.
What Should GCs Know About the Abortion Landscape?
What should company general counsels (GCs) know about abortion trigger bans, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and how not to break the law in light of the new abortion landscape in the United States? In this MedCity News article, McDermott’s Sarah Raaii offers insight into how companies can protect abortion access for workers.
“One thing that GCs and employers should do is closely track any new state developments in a state you have business interests in,” Raaii said. “And if you have employees all over, unfortunately that could mean keeping track of 50 different states laws because it’s as simple as ‘this state does or doesn’t prohibit abortion,’ there’s different levels of protection.”
Many Lessons Still Need to be Learned regarding Patient Access to Health Care Information
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently released a report detailing user experience research on patient access to health data. The Report sought to examine the experiences of individuals and processes of health systems, with commentary from medical record fulfillment administrators, to determine how the medical record request process can be improved for consumers.
