California government and healthcare employees will soon be required to show proof they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested regularly.
“I think that the major thing for people to understand with regard to HIPAA is that it’s very specific,” said Ankit Shah, a pediatrician with a law degree who teaches health law as a lecturer at USC. “Healthcare entities have your information and are prohibited from sharing it without your consent. That’s it. That’s HIPAA.”
HIPAA has been in headlines a lot lately. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, fresh off a 12-hour Twitter suspension for vaccine misinformation, told a reporter that asking if she was vaccinated “is a violation of my HIPAA rights.” In a similar incident days later, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott told a reporter who asked the same question, “I think that’s HIPAA.”