In the last year, there have been important changes to how reproductive and gender affirming care data can be used in support of ensuring the privacy of patients and ability of providers to deliver care. These changes include the passing of Shield Laws by the Vermont Legislature in 2023, and updates to the HIPAA Privacy Laws by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2024. These changes require that organizations and individuals maintaining patient records consider their practices for sharing this sensitive data.
Resources for Understanding and Managing New State and Federal Regulations Regarding Sharing Reproductive Care Data
Understanding the New Regulations
To help organizations navigate the new changes, VITL offered a webinar on the new federal and state Reproductive Health Data regulations featuring health care attorney John Wallace of Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer. The webinar addressed the changing legal landscape in preparation for implementation deadlines in late 2024 and early 2025, including:
- The legal context for protecting reproductive records
- Recent actions to protect reproductive data: Vermont Shield Law and the new HIPAA Privacy Rule
- Required changes to Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)
- Evaluating and responding to request for records and testimony involving reproductive data
- Implications for Information Blocking
Click here to view the webinar and here to view the webinar slides.
During his presentation, John Wallace walked through resources he developed to help organizations understand and address the impacts of these regulations to their work, including a breakdown between Vermont Shield Laws and HIPAA Regulations and a checklist for managing a legal request for records that are potentially related to reproductive health care.