Known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the law is widely misunderstood. (For one thing It is written HIPAA and not HIPPA.) The latest people to get it wrong are the ones who claim it is illegal to ask them if they are vaccinated. Sorry, that’s not how the law works. It doesn’t work that way.
HIPAA states that patients (that is you) can access your medical records and that “insured bodies” like your hospital or your health insurance company cannot share your medical records without your consent.
Schools, employers, law enforcement agencies, businesses, concert venues, and random people on the street are not bound by HIPAA. If your cousin knows you are pregnant and tells your aunt so without your consent, it is not a HIPAA violation. It’s just rude.
If someone wants to know if you have been vaccinated, It’s not a HIPAA violation to ask. Nor does HIPAA say anything about whether or how you answer. It’s a medical records law and irrelevant to the conversation.
Neither does HIPAA apply to discussions about whether you have any other reason not to wear a mask when in a place that requires it. And indeed, when you ask to enter a shop maskless for disability accommodation, the people in the shop can indeed ask for documentation of your disability. The law governing Americans with disabilities applies here, not the HIPAA.
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Even so, you should still not pester people who you believe have health problems or who you believe are making up for their health problems about their masking or vaccination status. Many disabled people have had enough of others who question their status and I cannot blame them.
This post was originally published in July 2020 with the headline “HIPAA doesn’t mean you can’t ask people why they’re not wearing a mask”. It was updated on May 18, 2021 to include discussions about vaccination status as well.
