Why is it HIPAA has not applied to millions of corpses up until COVID-19, but now it is applicable? /s
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Coronavirus victims are anonymous - on purpose. Releasing their names would be a disaster.
Marco della Cava
USA TODAY
Published 11:34am et Mar. 6, 2020 | updated 3:00pm et Mar. 6, 2020
SAN FRANCISCO — In this California epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, officials say they are trying to be as transparent as possible. They’re keeping a cruise ship out at sea, updating citizens on new cases and providing emergency resources to battle the epidemic.
But on one matter there remains absolute silence: the names of those who have died after being exposed to COVID-19, which so far nationwide involves one Californian and at least 13 Seattle-area residents.
That's because experts in public health and bioethics say that far from helping society, a decision to reveal the identities of those — dead or alive — who have contracted coronavirus would be a disaster with far-reaching ramifications.
“Doctors don’t out people,” says Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Maryland, which focuses on the ethical implications of scientific advancement. “Whether it’s HIV, syphilis, coronavirus or anything else, people simply won’t show up to their doctor if they feel they might be outed for a condition.”
Kahn pointed to the Hippocratic Oath, which explicitly states that a physician will “respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.”
What’s more, laws laid down in 1996 by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ensure that an individual’s health records remain undisclosed to the general public long after their death. That means releasing names of anyone with COVID-19 would violate HIPAA. So far, there are 51 confirmed COVID-19 cases in California.
“Just wanting to know something like who died from coronavirus doesn’t entitle you to know,” says David Magnus, director of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics in California.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/06/coronavirus-us-naming-victims-would-violate-hipaa-dangerous/4964498002/