Protecting Rhode Island’s patients and their physicians | Opinion

Rhode Island’s doctors are committed to delivering the highest quality of care to all people in the state. Indeed, we have made great progress in improving healthcare access and delivery over the past decade. But extreme laws passed by politicians in other states now threaten our ability to build on our progress, putting our system of care − and patients who rely on it − at risk.

Imagine experiencing a known, treatable medical condition and being prevented from receiving care that your physician prescribed − care that has been shown to work, is covered by health insurance, and is the widely-accepted standard of care.

Imagine being that physician, with access to that treatment, the expertise to provide it, yet being powerless to help. It’s a health scare that no patient or clinician should endure.

That’s the reality for too many patients and clinicians now that more than 20 states have banned essential medical care for transgender people and some or all abortion care. These bans exert extraordinary control over people’s lives and impose civil and criminal penalties on providers for practicing medicine according to professional standards of care.

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Because of Oklahoma’s strict anti-abortion laws, 25-year-old Jaci Statton was refused critical treatment at multiple hospitals despite experiencing vaginal bleeding and high blood pressure from a rare pregnancy complication that made her fetus nonviable and put her own health at risk. Her doctors couldn’t give Statton the abortion they recommended that she needed, and which she ultimately had to get in another state.

In Texas, where state law forbids parents from obtaining best-practice medical care for their transgender children, Attorney General Ken Paxton has sought the medical records of Texas youth from a Seattle hospital. This effort, possibly in violation of HIPAA and Washington privacy law, is aimed at intimidating Texas families seeking care and the providers who serve them.

These are two examples of increasing reports of risky interference with medical decision making, dangerously delayed care, and alleged illegalities because of the hijacking of health care by political extremists.

Here in Rhode Island, we value access to health care for all, and support medical providers in delivering the highest quality care. We must act now to protect our healthcare system, our providers, and those who need essential medical care from such outside interference.

The Health Care Provider Shield Act will do that. This straightforward bill introduced by Sen. Dawn Euer and Rep. John Edwards will protect healthcare practitioners in Rhode Island from abusive civil or criminal litigation from other states or penalization by healthcare institutions or insurance companies for providing legal, essential care here. It will protect patients’ personal medical information from being shared with law enforcement in other states and protect clinicians from surveillance that could hurt their ability to provide legally protected care.

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Rhode Island wouldn’t be alone in enacting such a law. Eleven states and D.C. have such shield laws, including Massachusetts and Connecticut. Rhode Island must remain a competitive practice environment among our neighbors.

Without these protections, Rhode Island’s healthcare system is at risk of disruption by the surveillance of providers, the threat of being forced to divulge private patient information, or facing costly out-of-state litigation. Rhode Island must remain a state where one wants to practice so that physicians and other expert health professionals can continue to provide patients with quality, compassionate, and essential care when they need it.

Rhode Islanders have long supported access to abortion and the rights of transgender people to live free from discrimination − including access to healthcare. The Health Care Provider Shield Act would codify these values in state law and keep decisions about essential medical treatment where they belong: between a patient and their physician.

Dr. Heather A. Smith is president of the Rhode Island Medical Society, an academic generalist OB GYN at Women & Infants Hospital and an assistant professor at Brown University.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: More than 20 states have banned essential medical care for transgender people and some or all abortion care.