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Bauer-Kahan Bill Ending Mental Health Data Harvesting Becomes Law

Source: Written by Mark Nero for the Lamorinda Patch

ORINDA, CA -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed into law AB 2089, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer Kahan (D-Orinda)’s bill to protect mental health data privacy.

If a patient answered certain sensitive mental health questions in a doctor’s office, any information collected would be protected by federal health privacy laws like HIPAA. However, if a patient answered these questions to connect to a mental health provider through an online app, the service could, and does, harvest and sell this information.