HIPAA Lives On as Texas Suit Against HHS Is Dismissed, Lawyers Say
A federal court’s Nov. 24 decision to drop a case by the Texas attorney general challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the validity of the HIPAA Privacy Rule means the federal statute will remain as we know it, said Quarles & Brady lawyers in a Monday blog post.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed the lawsuit in September 2024, alleging that HHS had exceeded its statutory authority when, in April of that year, it issued its final HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy. The lawyers noted that “the interesting twist in this lawsuit was that one of the Texas AG’s proposed remedies was to challenge the validity of the entire 2000 HIPAA Privacy Rule.”
Additionally, in June, the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas vacated a majority of the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (see 2506200057). The court ruled that the federal agency overstepped its congressional authority when it amended the regulation last year in response to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The Nov. 24 decision by Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas was “based on a joint stipulation between both the state of Texas and HHS,” the lawyers said.
Though “this challenge to HIPAA’s validity has ended, it remains to be seen whether states continue to take advantage of the current administration’s shift towards a more relaxed regulatory environment,” said the lawyers: However, they don’t see the end of HIPAA "happening any time soon."