On June 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued two pieces of guidance clarifying the applicability of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) related to privacy of information connected to an individual’s reproductive health.
Through this guidance, HIPAA addresses both protected health information (“PHI”), which is subject to HIPAA’s rules, as well as general, personal information that is not directly protected by HIPAA.