On April 12, 2023, the Biden administration announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the agency responsible for enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The NPRM is designed to protect patient privacy as it relates to the provision of reproductive healthcare. The NPRM would primarily prohibit entities regulated by HIPAA from disclosing protected health information (PHI) related to an individual’s reproductive healthcare to law enforcement or others when such reproductive healthcare is provided in a state where it is legally provided.
