Committee narrows hospital access for federal immigration enforcement, forwards bill after clarifying concerns about local law enforcement and HIPAA

The Senate Committee on Health Care on Feb. 16 adopted a replacement amendment to Senate Bill 1570 that would restrict federal immigration authorities from entering or accessing nonpublic hospital areas except by law or court order and would treat immigration status as protected health information under state law.

Committee staff described proposed replacements (dash-2 and dash-5). The dash-5 amendment (adopted) would direct hospitals to designate nonpublic areas, prohibit disclosure of a person’s health or immigration status without law or court order, require hospitals to designate an administrator and adopt written policies for when federal immigration authorities arrive, and prohibit retaliation against workers who provide patients information about constitutional rights or legal services. The amendment also allows patients or employees to file complaints with the Bureau of Labor and Industries for retaliation claims and would allow OHA to revoke a hospital license for failure to comply in certain instances.

Supporters said the intent is to keep hospitals safe and to protect patients and frontline workers from immigration enforcement actions that could deter care. "That was the initial intent, of this legislation," Abigail Kersey said, adding stakeholders were committed to further amendment work in the House. Aaron Fiedler of OHSU told the committee hospital interactions with law enforcement are frequent and necessary for public-safety incidents and that the amendment must avoid "unintended consequences" that would impede appropriate local-law-enforcement responses.

Several senators, including Vice Chair Hayden, voiced concern that dash-5's language could inadvertently restrict local law enforcement in crisis situations. Members agreed to pursue further clarifying language and House amendments (a dash-6) to address HIPAA exceptions and definitions of law enforcement while preserving protections against federal immigration enforcement. The dash-5 amendment was adopted and the committee moved SB 1570 to the Senate floor with a "do pass" recommendation; multiple senators said they would file minority reports to press fixes on the Senate floor.

The committee requested fiscal and revenue analyses that are posted to OLIS and emphasized the need to balance patient privacy protections with hospital safety and HIPAA-consistent disclosure when local public-safety responses are needed.