The COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination campaigns have given rise to questions about the legal issues around sharing health information. The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky will host a webinar on May 4 to review the basic elements of the federal health privacy law (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA) for both consumers and health care providers, as well as strategies for data sharing that are allowable under HIPAA.

The webinar presenter is Jennifer Bernstein, Deputy Director for the Network for Public Health Law in the Mid-States Region. She is based at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Bernstein has more 10 years of experience in public health law and policy research and practice. Her areas of interest include health information privacy, confidentiality, and data sharing, particularly around the application of privacy law to public health agencies and data sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic; maternal and child health law; vaccination law; and the role of law in protecting vulnerable populations. Jennifer received her JD and MPH from the University of Iowa and her BS in Women’s Studies and a Certificate in LGBT Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional through the International Association of Privacy Professionals.