![]() ![]() 583, 587 (2014) (“Privacy law in the United States has developed in a fragmented fashion and is currently a hodgepodge of various constitutional protections, federal and state statutes, torts, regulatory rules, and treaties.”). Solove & Woodrow Hartzog, The FTC and the New Common Law of Privacy, 114 Colum. Our federal privacy apparatus has something of an ad hoc, ramshackle quality to it. But it should also occasion reflection on the state of our personal health privacy, and the law that protects it. When people reference “HIPPA” to keep their health information confidential, it may engender a smug chuckle. In the midst of a deadly outbreak, “HIPPA” serves as a linguistic anchor-a flawed metonym for personal rights against forced decisions and community sanctions. But HIPAA has found new prominence in the national debate about our personal health decisions and the confidentiality and autonomy accorded to them. HIPAA is in fact the type of law that should be unfamiliar to most people: it only applies to a narrow subset of regulated entities, and it is enforced against those entities by an obscure subdivision of a federal agency. Although centered on the concept of privacy, the sole “P” in HIPAA stands for “Portability,” highlighting the statute’s purpose to facilitate the electronic transfer of data between health care entities. 1395, 1405 (2020) (noting that “HIPAA regulations . . . are numerous and complex in nature, making it hard for covered entities to ensure they comply”). ![]() 6 William McGeveran, Privacy and Data Protection Law 764 (2016) (describing HIPAA regulations as “a veritable spaghetti of intertwining cross-references and definitions”) Frank Qin, Comment, The Debilitating Scope of Care Coordination Under HIPAA, 98 N.C. 1936 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 18, 26, 29, and 42 U.S.C.).-is in fact easy to misunderstand. The real statute at issue-the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 5 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Pub. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘HIPAA Rights’ Excuse Brutally Mocked on ‘Late Night, ’ Huffington Post (July 23, 2021, 05:09 AM), entry/seth-meyers-marjorie-taylor-greene-hipaa-rights_n_60fa50f4e4b0e92dfec1a0ad (last visited Mar. her erroneous asservations drew justifiable derision. and later claimed that questions about her personal vaccination decision were in fact violations of the law, 3 Philip Bump, That’s Not How Any of This Works, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Wash. ![]() Representative Greene’s Twitter account has since been deleted, but a reference to the tweet can be found at Victoria Bekiempis, Trainers, Doctors, Therapists: Is It OK to Ask Professionals if They’re Vaccinated?, Guardian (Aug. ![]() When Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene asserted that Americans’ vaccination records were private under “HIPPA” 2 Marjorie Taylor Greene Twitter (May 19, 2021), mtgreenee/status/1395023563049127946 (“Vax records, along with ALL medical records are private due to HIPPA rights.”). This misunderstanding of federal law’s very limited scope leads to some easy dunks from the other side. It is not the correct acronym for the actual statute, and-more importantly-it generally does not provide the protections claimed by those who invoke it. During the course of the pandemic, when looking to protect their personal autonomy and privacy as to vaccinations, positive COVID-19 test results, and mitigation measures such as masking, many Americans have referenced a federal statute under the acronym “HIPPA.” 1 Sara Morrison, HIPAA, the Health Privacy Law That’s More Limited Than You Think, Explained, Recode (July 30, 2021, 8:41 AM), recode/22363011/hipaa-not-hippa-explained-health-privacy (last visited Mar. ![]()
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