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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘IRS Health Records 
Privacy Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. LIMITATION IN INSPECTION OF PROTECTED 
HEALTH INFORMATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except to the extent provided in 
section 7608(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as 
added by this Act), in administering and enforcing the in-
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ternal revenue laws and the Patient Protection and Af-
fordable Care Act, no officer or employee of the Depart-
ment of the Treasury may inspect the protected health in-
formation of any individual. 
(b) PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION.—For pur-
poses of this subsection, the term ‘‘protected health infor-
mation’’ has the meaning given such term in section 
160.103 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulation. 
(c) CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PENALTIES.—Any willful 
inspection in violation of subsection (a) shall be treated 
as an unauthorized inspection of return information for 
purposes of section 7213A of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986, and any knowing inspection (or by reason of neg-
ligence) in violation of subsection (a) shall be treated as 
an unauthorized inspection of return information for pur-
poses of section 7431 of such Code. 
(d) NOTIFICATION OF INSPECTION.—In the case of 
any inspection of an individual’s protected health informa-
tion in violation of subsection (a), the Secretary of the 
Treasury shall, as soon as practicable, notify the indi-
vidual of such inspection. 
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SEC. 3. LIMITATIONS ON ACCESS TO PROTECTED HEALTH 
INFORMATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 7608 of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection: 
‘‘(d) LIMITATIONS
ON
ACCESS
TO
PROTECTED 
HEALTH INFORMATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—No protected health infor-
mation may be examined or seized in the execution 
of a warrant under this section except to the extent 
such health information directly relates to a criminal 
violation of the internal revenue laws with respect to 
which the warrant was issued and is specified there-
in. In executing any such warrant, the Secretary 
shall take such steps as are necessary to minimize 
inadvertent access or seizure of protected health in-
formation. 
‘‘(2) PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION.—For 
purposes of this subsection, the term ‘protected 
health information’ has the meaning given such term 
in section 160.103 of title 45, Code of Federal Reg-
ulation.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall apply to warrants executed after the date 
of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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