I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3041 

To prevent the Internal Revenue Service from unnecessarily seizing protected 

health information. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AUGUST 2, 2013 

Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To prevent the Internal Revenue Service from unnecessarily 

seizing protected health information. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘IRS Health Records 

5 Privacy Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. LIMITATION IN INSPECTION OF PROTECTED 

7 HEALTH INFORMATION. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except to the extent provided in 

9 section 7608(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as 

10 added by this Act), in administering and enforcing the inVerDate Mar 15 2010 21:51 Aug 09, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3041.IH H3041

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1 ternal revenue laws and the Patient Protection and Af2 fordable Care Act, no officer or employee of the Depart3 ment of the Treasury may inspect the protected health in4 formation of any individual. 

5 (b) PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION.—For pur6 poses of this subsection, the term ‘‘protected health infor7 mation’’ has the meaning given such term in section 

8 160.103 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulation. 

9 (c) CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PENALTIES.—Any willful 

10 inspection in violation of subsection (a) shall be treated 

11 as an unauthorized inspection of return information for 

12 purposes of section 7213A of the Internal Revenue Code 

13 of 1986, and any knowing inspection (or by reason of neg14 ligence) in violation of subsection (a) shall be treated as 

15 an unauthorized inspection of return information for pur16 poses of section 7431 of such Code. 

17 (d) NOTIFICATION OF INSPECTION.—In the case of 

18 any inspection of an individual’s protected health informa19 tion in violation of subsection (a), the Secretary of the 

20 Treasury shall, as soon as practicable, notify the indi21 vidual of such inspection. 


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1 SEC. 3. LIMITATIONS ON ACCESS TO PROTECTED HEALTH 

2 INFORMATION. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 7608 of the Internal Rev4 enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 

5 following new subsection: 

6 ‘‘(d) LIMITATIONS ON ACCESS TO PROTECTED

7 HEALTH INFORMATION.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—No protected health infor9 mation may be examined or seized in the execution 

10 of a warrant under this section except to the extent 

11 such health information directly relates to a criminal 

12 violation of the internal revenue laws with respect to 

13 which the warrant was issued and is specified there14 in. In executing any such warrant, the Secretary 

15 shall take such steps as are necessary to minimize 

16 inadvertent access or seizure of protected health in17 formation. 

18 ‘‘(2) PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION.—For 

19 purposes of this subsection, the term ‘protected 

20 health information’ has the meaning given such term 

21 in section 160.103 of title 45, Code of Federal Reg22 ulation.’’. 

23 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

24 this section shall apply to warrants executed after the date 

25 of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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