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HIPAA 2004: A Review of Significant Litigated Cases

By Elliott B. Oppenheim
July 22, 2004

Part One of a Three-Part Article

Since its enactment, with perhaps only three significant exceptions, the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Pub. L. No. 104-191, 110 Stat. 1936 (1996) (HIPAA) have not been litigated. In the majority of cases where HIPAA has been the subject of litigation — less than 50 — litigants have raised HIPAA provisions as an issue, but only tangentially as part of a “throw away” argument, or in a meaningful manner but where the answer was immediately clear from the case's inception.

Three federal cases, however, merit analysis, since they go to the heart of HIPAA, the government's broad attempt to safeguard medical records in the electronic age. In this month's issue, we concentrate on Northwestern Memorial Hospital v. Ashcroft, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 5724 (7th Cir. 2004), in which, in the context of an abortion rights case, the Seventh Circuit was called upon to determine whether HIPAA created some form of new federal privilege.

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