It’s amazing how many misconceptions are on the loose about HIPAA, the federal health privacy law. You’ve probably heard someone claim it means businesses can’t ask you about your vaccination status. (They can.) Or that a store’s policy requiring masks is invalid for the same reason. (It isn’t.) One meme claims the “rule is simple, HIPAA protects EVERY American from disclosing ANY of their health records to ANYONE.” (Completely false.)
Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and writes often on election law.
