(The Center Square) — A coalition of New York business groups is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto a “restrictive” data privacy bill they say would drive up costs for health care consumers.
The New York Health Information Privacy Act calls for extending the state’s existing protections for personal health information beyond the scope of federal HIPAA regulations. The legislation would make it illegal to sell an individual’s regulated health information without their consent and restrict the “processing” of health data by third party companies. Violators would face hefty fines.
Democratic lawmakers who pushed the plan through the state Legislature earlier this year said the restrictions are needed to protect New Yorkers’ data privacy amid increasing threats to reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.
But members of the coalition, which included the Business Council of New York State, National Federation of Independent Business and Retail Council of New York, said lawmakers through amendments have expanded the bill “far beyond its original purpose.” They said if approved the measure “would impose sweeping and economy-wide consequences that will increase costs for New Yorkers and disrupt essential services relied upon every day.”
“Although the legislation was originally conceived to prevent the misuse of reproductive and gender-affirming care data, it has evolved into a comprehensive and unprecedented data privacy regime unlike any in the nation,” the groups said in a letter to Hochul, urging her to reject the proposal.
Among the chief complaints, the coalition said the bill would subject a “vast range” of New York businesses and nonprofits to “complex new obligations” that go beyond laws adopted by Connecticut, Washington and other states with consumer health privacy protections.
“The operational impact could raise compliance costs across industries, create new affordability challenges for New Yorkers, and undermine service continuity at a time when many sectors are already operating under tight margins,” they wrote.
“Without making substantial amendments, the enactment of NY HIPA will put New York businesses, nonprofits, and consumers at a significant disadvantage and further harm our state’s competitiveness and affordability crisis,” the groups said.
The New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is among the groups urging Hochul to sign the bill. ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Allie Bohm said the proposal will “ensure that New Yorkers — not big tech companies, bad actors, or government entities — have control over the intimate health information collected through fitness apps, phone records, search engines, period tracking apps, and the many other tools that are part of modern life.”
“Now more than ever, New Yorkers must be able to receive care and monitor their health without fear of inappropriate data sharing or misuse,” she said in a recent statement. “We urge the Governor to sign this bill immediately into law.”
The data privacy bill is one of several pieces of major legislation awaiting action by Hochul before the end of the year, when the bills would expire without action.
