Regulatory TREND + State Law: Sharing Data COVID 19 positive addresses

Where: Alabama

What: Alabama’s Department of Health is sharing the physical addresses of people who tested positive for COVID 19 with emergency responders

How does HIPPA calculate into this health information privacy issue? Alabama determined that  public safety outweigh privacy concerns

Does Alabama have a law that also addresses this exception to health care information privacy? Yes,  a state law permits the state to “notify a third party of the presence of a contagious disease in an individual where there is a foreseeable, real or probable risk of transmission of the disease.”

Have other states also released addresses of COVID positive individuals? Yes, Massachusetts

Alabama Media Group via Governing | Alabama Shares Addresses, Not Names, of COVID-19 Patients