A new lawsuit by Seattle Children’s pits the hospital against the Texas Attorney General’s office, amid a national fight over privacy for children seeking gender-affirming care.
In the lawsuit, filed this month in Travis County, Texas, District Court, Seattle Children’s is aiming to protect patient information of Texans who left their home state, where it’s illegal for minors to access gender-affirming care, to seek treatment here, where it is legal.
It also invokes Washington’s new shield law, legislation state lawmakers approved earlier this year to protect hospitals from being forced to share information about transgender and gender diverse children who are seeking medical care. Many Democrat-led states have passed similar shield laws, fearing that people crossing state lines for abortions and gender-affirming care could be prosecuted as more Republican-led states continue to pass laws restricting access to these services.
Children’s filed the new lawsuit after the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton served the hospital with a civil investigative demand in late November, according to the complaint. The request sought information about patients from Texas who had received gender-affirming care services from Children’s, including details related to diagnoses, medications prescribed, laboratory testing and other treatment protocols.
This is a violation of HIPAA and the rights of patients to privacy.
Maybe? HIPAA generally covers medical-to-medical information transfer. Most non-medical entities/people aren’t part of that law and it’s not a violation for a hospital to release information to law enforcement.
Violating the rights of patients definitely. HIPAA…maybe not.
HIPAA absolutely covers release of information to non-medical, including law enforcement.
My NAL take on that says the court order would need to be from a court with jurisdiction to give said order.
Texas courts don’t have jurisdiction in Washington, so the AG would have to get a federal court to process it (not gonna happen.
No federal law was violated, or suspected of being violated.) or a Washington court (also not going to happen- no Washington law was violated- and the shield law would be if they just complied.)
HIPAA covers the spreading of medical information by anyone who’s not the patient themselves.
Not entirely.
You tell the gossip at work that you’ve got an STD…. They’re free to tell whoever they want.
HIPAA only applies to medical staff and people who “need” to know- for example HR dept peeps when you call in because you have a cold; or rando security guards that responded to Fred going hypoglycemic again because he scarffed all the donuts on donut day.
Edit: they’re still wrong, the cops are obligated to get an appropriate court order. Even with a subpoena, the information is fairly restricted.