Indiana AG drops lawsuit over Ohio girl’s abortion privacy

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s attorney general has dropped a lawsuit accusing the state’s largest hospital system of violating patient privacy laws when a doctor told a newspaper that a 10-year-old Ohio girl was moving to Indiana had traveled for an abortion.

A federal judge last week approved Attorney General Todd Rokita’s request to dismiss his lawsuit, which the Republican filed last year against Indiana University Health and IU Healthcare Associates. The Indianapolis Star reported.

The lawsuit accused the hospital system of violating HIPAA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and a state law, for failing to protect patient information in the case of a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to Indiana to obtain abortion medications .

Dr. Caitlin Bernard The star’s lawyers later said she shared no personally identifying information about the girl, and such details were not reported in the Star’s July 1, 2022 story, but it became a flashpoint in the abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

A federal judge in Indianapolis initially granted IU Health’s request to dismiss the case in June, prompting Rokita to file an amended complaint in July. His office subsequently requested the case be dismissed last week, writing that the state’s initial complaints have been satisfied by the actions IU Health has taken since then. The star first reported on the girl’s case.

These actions include continuing to train employees not to talk about patients in public spaces and informing employees that if they are contacted by a reporter, they must inform public relations or communications departments before responding, according to Rokita’s dismissal motion.

“We are pleased that the information this agency sought over two years ago has finally been provided and that the necessary steps have been taken to accurately and consistently train their staff to protect patients and their health care professionals,” Rokita said in a statement Monday.

However, IU Health says it has always engaged in such practices, and is disheartened by the claim that these were corrective actions taken in response to Rokita’s lawsuit.

“IU Health has and will continue to maintain its robust HIPAA compliance policies and training for its team members, as it has for years,” the statement reads. “While we are pleased that the Indiana Attorney General’s office voluntarily took action to dismiss the case, we are disappointed that limited taxpayer resources were diverted to this case after the Court’s initial complaint was dismissed on the merits rejected.”

Indiana’s Medical Licensing Board Bernard chided in May 2023, she said she was not adhering to privacy laws by publicly talking about the girl’s treatment.

It was far less than the medical license suspension Rokita’s office requested, and IU Health’s internal investigation found that Bernard had not violated privacy laws.

The Indiana Supreme Court, meanwhile, reprimanded Rokita and fined him $250 for making statements about Bernard that violated the rules of the law. professional conduct rules for lawyers.