Do you remember Andrew Speaker?

Lawyer in 2007 TB scare sues CDC

Andrew Speaker was the man who was quarantined after the CDC believed that he had globe-trotted while infected with XDR-TB (extensively drug-resistant TB).  

He is now suing the government for what he alleges to be a breach of the HIPAA rules.

People far-and-wide were not at all happy with his choices to travel, and he went as far as to come into the US by crossing the US-Canada border.  

So a couple of questions arise:  

1. Was the CDC right in releasing his information to the public?  

2. Is the CDC a "covered entity" for HIPAA?  

A covered entity applies to "any entity that is:

- a health care provider that conducts certain transactions in electronic form (called here a “covered health care provider”),

- a health care clearinghouse, or

- a health plan"