The comment period for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR proposed changes to Privacy Rule ended on June 16, 2023, and the first portion of comments have been released to the public. As of June 19, 2023, 25,905 comments were submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), with 65 of those comments being made publicly available for review.
The publicly available comments can be viewed on Regulations.gov under the “Browse Posted Comments” tab. The relevant changes at issue were announced on Monday, April 12, 2023 by the OCR issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the HIPPA Privacy Rule to address the release of reproductive health care information to third parties for the purposes of civil, administrative, or criminal proceedings for care that is lawfully obtained.