HIPAA Is No Excuse for Keeping Mum on Your Vaccination Status

Federal health privacy law doesn’t protect workers, students, or customers from most requests for information about their Covid-19 vaccination status, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights said Thursday.

Privacy protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act apply in the health-care sector only, and don’t place restrictions on most employers, schools, and businesses, the HHS said in a Sept. 30 guidance document.

Even within the health-care sector, HIPAA privacy rules limit the use and disclosure of health information but do nothing to prevent entities covered by the rule from requesting information from patients ...