HIPAA

Nat'l Abortion Fed'n v. Ashcroft,
No. 04 C 55 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 6, 2004)

A professional organization of abortion providers and seven individual physicians sued the Attorney General, challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The government served a hospital, which was the workplace of one of the physicians involved in the suit, with a subpoena seeking production of medical records for patients who had received partial birth abortions. The hospital refused to turn over the records, claiming they were privileged under HIPAA and Illinois law. The District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that HIPAA allows a hospital to disclose patient medical records subject to a court order. HIPAA also provides, however, that state laws that are more protective of patient records are not preempted by HIPAA. In this case, the court found that Illinois state law mandated the medical records at issue to be privileged, so HIPAA did not apply.