Indiana Legal professional Basic Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit towards IU Well being, the state’s largest well being community, over its assist of Dr. Caitlin Bernard following a violation of affected person privateness. The lawsuit was filed in federal courtroom on Friday. Final 12 months, Bernard supplied abortion care to a 10-year-old rape sufferer from Ohio and later mentioned the case with the Indianapolis Star.
On the time, IU Well being carried out a evaluation of the case and concluded that Bernard had not violated the affected person’s privateness. Nevertheless, earlier this 12 months, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board reprimanded Bernard for violating state and federal affected person privateness legal guidelines. In response, IU Well being issued an announcement supporting Bernard and disagreeing with the board’s choice, standing by their very own privateness evaluation.
Todd Rokita now argues that IU Well being’s assertion undermines the steerage of the licensing board and doubtlessly confuses its workforce about what’s permissible by way of affected person privateness. He additionally claims that IU Well being’s unique evaluation didn’t adequately study whether or not Bernard had certainly violated privateness legal guidelines. The lawsuit additional alleges that the well being community has punished different staff for much less extreme privateness violations.
IU Well being has launched an announcement in response to the lawsuit, expressing disappointment within the Legal professional Basic’s workplace for allocating restricted sources to this matter. They state that they may reply on to the AG’s workplace concerning the submitting. Rokita is in search of a courtroom order to require IU Well being to replace its safeguards towards privateness violations and be sure that its docs adjust to privateness legal guidelines.
This story has been up to date. Brandon, our Statehouse bureau chief, could be contacted at bsmith@ipbs.org or adopted on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5. Copyright 2023 IPB Information. To see extra, go to .