(WASHINGTON) — A favorite picnic staple is being recalled, right on the heels of Fourth of July celebrations.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Hy-Vee, Inc. is voluntarily withdrawing all varieties and all sizes of its Hy-Vee Potato Salad and Mealtime Potato Salad due to a presumptive positive microbial result on the line that the potatoes were processed on,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced July 1. “While final test results are not expected for approximately 7-10 days, due to the holiday weekend Hy-Vee elected to withdraw all product today from its shelves and service cases pending final test results.”
The voluntary recall, according to the FDA, includes all 10 product varieties and sizes of Hy-Vee Potato Salad and Mealtime Potato Salad. (Click here for a full product list and more recall information from the FDA.)
The products were sold in the company’s eight-state region and available in grab-and-go refrigerated cases and/or deli service cases in all Hy-Vee, Hy-Vee Drugstore and Dollar Fresh Market locations, as well as Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh convenience stores.
Customers in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin who may have purchased the products are encouraged to check the expiration dates. The affected products are marked with dates between July 31, 2022, and Aug. 4, 2022, according to the FDA.
No other Hy-Vee or Mealtime branded salads are impacted and as of time of publication, there have been no reports of illness or complaints involving the products from the recall.
“Customers who have purchased any of these products are urged not to consume the product and dispose of it or return it to their local Hy-Vee for a full refund,” the FDA stated.
The company encouraged any questions be directed to Hy-Vee Customer Care at customercare@hy-vee.com.
(WASHINGTON) — Following a stronger-than-expected jobs report released on Friday, the Biden administration is continuing to push back on fears of looming economic downtown while working to tame historic inflation.
“I don’t see any reason to think that we will have a serious recession,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday when asked about the trajectory of future growth as the Federal Reserve signals further interest rate hikes to slow spending and demand.
Raimondo said the “fundamentals” of the U.S. economy are “very strong” and tackling inflation is “our top priority.”
“We’ve recovered all the jobs since the pandemic. People’s household balance sheets are strong,” she said. “Companies are doing well. Companies are hiring, companies are growing.”
She acknowledged the strain of inflation on daily life and said she expected the economy to “transition to a more traditional growth level,” but said that the public should not “be talking ourselves into a recession.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics last week announced that 372,000 jobs were added in June — nearly 100,000 more than economists had forecast — and the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6%.
Asked on Sunday by Stephanopoulos to explain divide between “the strong economic fundamentals” and the “lowest consumer confidence” in the economy in years, Raimondo said it points back to “one word.”
“Inflation. … And people talk about it in different ways. But if you ask folks what they’re worried about, they’ll either say, ‘Grocery store prices are high, food prices are high, energy prices, gas prices,’ that’s in people’s daily lives.”
“Until we do get a handle on inflation, I think it’s natural for a family to be feeling that pinch,” she added.
But the administration will “get a handle” on the rising cost of goods and services, she said.
Amid calls from within the Democratic party to do more to combat inflation, Raimondo was pressed on what further actions President Joe Biden could be doing right now. But she turned some of the responsibility over to the Senate.
“Congress needs to pass the CHIPS Act,” she said, referring to one of two bills that would help accelerate U.S. manufacturing of semiconductor chips. “That has to pass. Has to pass now. Not in six months from now. Now. It’s bipartisan. [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell just threw a wrench in that about a week ago saying that he wasn’t going to allow Republicans to move on that unless we move down reconciliation. That’s a perfect example, George, of increasing supply. We have inflation now because of lack of supply.”
“Doesn’t that mean the CHIPS bill is dead?” Stephanopoulos asked Raimondo, echoing her point that McConnell has said he will block the legislation as long as Biden continues to push for a reconciliation spending bill over GOP objections.
“It shouldn’t be dead. Why can’t we do both?” Raimondo said. “It’s a false choice. He’s playing politics with our national security, and it’s time for Congress to do its job on both of those dimensions.”
Raimondo was also asked if she was confident in the effectiveness of the global price cap on Russian oil that Biden proposed, with Stephanopoulos pointing to “a lot of economists” who “are skeptical about whether that can really work.”
“I think it can [work],” she said of a price cap. “Yes, I think it can.”
(NEW YORK) — The digital currencies have crashed as interest rates rise and investors seek less risky investments.
Can cryptocurrency become an alternative financial system for people of color who have historically faced discriminatory banking practices? Some crypto enthusiasts of color who spoke with ABC News say they believe so, even despite the crash in the price of digital currencies.
Worries about the volatile cryptocurrency market also leave some wondering whether turning to digital currency could financially hurt people of color, who generally have less net worth and generational wealth than white people, rather than help them.
Prejudice in banking
Black and brown people have a history of being “underbanked” and discriminated against by traditional financial institutions.
Many low-income Hispanic and Black households have little-to-no bank access, according to research from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
At least 40% of Black Americans are under or unbanked – 13% are without a bank account and 27% rely primarily on other financial services that do not fully meet their financial needs, according to the Federal Reserve.
An analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data also found that of all mortgage applications, Black borrowers had the highest denial rate of 27%, followed by Hispanics at almost 22%.
And several investigations about discrimination by several banks, have shown that people of color have been charged more for banking fees or higher interest rates than their white counterparts.
Teri Williams, the president, COO and owner of OneUnited Bank, one of the nation’s largest Black-owned banks, told ABC News that “banking while Black” is a phrase used to describe discriminatory banking practices.
“There are many reasons for the large percentage of unbanked or underbanked Black Americans, including lower median income and education, less access to banking services due to a lower concentration of bank branches and a higher concentration of check cashers in Black communities, and systemic racism,” she said.
She says many Black Americans simply feel unwelcome when they walk into most national bank branches.
Even Black-owned banks have struggled for adequate investment funding and don’t have access to the same resources as large banks.
Cryptocurrency became a space, she says, where communities of color could support and connect with one another without having the red tape of financial systems, according to Olayinka Odeniran, the founder of the Black Women Blockchain Council.
“Everybody always felt that we don’t really care about investing or budgeting,” said Odeniran, who is also a cybersecurity expert. “But in essence, we do. It’s just that historically, we have not had resources that allow us to tap in beyond risk, gaining some monetary freedom that’s beyond paycheck to paycheck.”
Crypto pitfalls
However, the recent crash of a popular stablecoin and the dramatic fall of Bitcoin from nearly $69,000 to below $22,000 in just about two years (at the time of publishing), highlights some of the hazards and risks that come from decentralized financial systems.
The cryptocurrency market crash erased billions of dollars and sent investors into a tailspin.
Even cryptocurrency’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders acknowledge the potential risks and instability that cryptocurrency can have. Its volatile marketplace and the prices of coins can change quickly and regularly, putting one’s money at stake. The market is also rife with scammers eager to take advantage of users.
Still, some say it’s not much different than the ebbs and flows of the stock market.
“Even though we’re experiencing a bear market right now, historically, Bitcoin is still on the up and up,” said Mesidor. “This is a currency that no one paid attention to and now it’s sitting at around $20,000.”
The volatility of the market is one of its major risks. When the market crashes, people of color are likely to be included in the wreckage.
Crypto is so volatile because it isn’t backed by anything intrinsically valuable besides the public interest in it, according to Forbes, whereas the U.S. dollar is backed by the government.
This means that different currencies can drop their value or soar in a day. People can lose money, or potentially owe more on their crypto-based loans, in an instant.
Another risk for those operating in the crypto space is falling prey to scammers, who have taken advantage of a decentralized market rife with a growing number of potentially uneducated newcomers.
Reported losses to crypto fraud in 2021 were up nearly sixty times the losses in 2018, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Without a third party to flag fraud or suspicious activity, or reverse payments, more than 46,000 people have lost money since the start of 2021 to crypto scammers.
An ‘alternative financial system’
A report from the Pew Research Center found that Black, Asian and Hispanic people are more likely to say they have invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ether.
“People of color sometimes have difficulty going to get a bank loan or going to get some sort of assistance from the government or a way to start their business and they’re turned down,” said cryptocurrency enthusiast Steven Bumbera. “Crypto doesn’t care.”
Cleve Mesidor, the executive director of the Blockchain Foundation, said that people of color are using crypto as “an alternative financial system to operate” without discrimination.
Enthusiasts contend the benefits of managing money on blockchain technology outweigh the risks for many people of color, and they’re sticking with it.
When using crypto, it can cost almost nothing and takes almost no time to transfer money to anyone in the world at any time, although it depends on the type of crypto.
For crypto-backed loans, borrowers can be given money from an exchange or lending agency without having to worry about racial discrimination.
“If you are on chain, and you have a wallet address, you’re a wallet address — that’s it,” said Bumbera. “Crypto doesn’t care about color, race, sexual orientation.”
Enthusiasts like Bumbera say they like that anyone with a smartphone can access cryptocurrency, without the red tape of banks or government institutions in which it takes days and costs fees or interest rates to do the same.
They also say crypto can be used to fund businesses and organizations directly without donations being penalized by a third-party to transfer the money.
However, for the wave of people of color working within the market, Williams says that this new financial frontier is bound to come with risks and challenges.
“Crypto is not a competitor to traditional banking, but a complement,” Williams said. “There will continue to be a need for traditional banking services, but crypto, in moderation, can provide opportunities for wealth building and opportunities to develop new services – such as remittance services – that can better meet the needs of the Black community.”
(NEW YORK) — The labor group behind the first-ever U.S. union at Amazon has thrown its support behind organizing campaigns at two additional warehouses.
Amazon Labor Union, the worker-led union behind the victory at an Amazon warehouse in New York City in April, reached agreements to provide organizing and financial assistance for workers trying to unionize warehouses in Albany, NY. and Campbellsville, KY., who will affiliate as formal chapters of the union, ALU President Chris Smalls told ABC News.
The development demonstrates the appeal of worker-led union campaigns and raises the possibility that the momentum built by the initial labor victory will foster unionization at other warehouses, experts said.
But they cautioned that the size of Amazon warehouses and well-resourced anti-union efforts from the corporation will continue to make the labor campaigns difficult.
“This shows workers are coming together,” said Jordan Flowers, a co-founder of ALU. “These workers want to see a union now, and they’re choosing ALU.”
The two organizing partnerships with ALU were first reported by More Perfect Union.
Workers organizing at a third facility in Garner, North Carolina are in discussions with ALU about partnering with the union, Ryan Brown, an Amazon warehouse worker involved in the labor campaign at the facility, told ABC News.
“We’re going to assist them 100%,” said Smalls, the ALU president and former Amazon warehouse worker. “Whatever they need: Resources, money, going out there.”
He acknowledged that the labor campaigns in Albany and Campbellsville remain in the “infancy stage.”
In a statement to ABC News, Amazon expressed its general opposition to union campaigns.
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said. “As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
ALU, an independent union initially fueled by fundraising on a GoFundMe page, carried out a monthslong organizing campaign at the 6,000-employee warehouse on Staten Island that proved one of the most significant labor victories in the U.S. in recent decades.
After the union victory, Amazon filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to overturn the outcome, including allegations that NLRB officials showed a favorable bias toward the workers and that union leaders bribed colleagues in an effort to win their support. The ALU has rejected those claims. The NLRB hearings are ongoing.
In May, ALU lost a second union election at a neighboring warehouse on Staten Island. The partnerships with workers in Albany and Campbellsville mark the first labor campaigns announced by the ALU since the two union drives on Staten Island.
Matt Littrell, a warehouse worker involved in organizing at the warehouse in Campbellsville, told ABC News that employees want the company to address the grueling pace of the work and uncomfortable heat inside the building.
“The same issues come up time and time again, and they have for many years, yet management is very apathetic toward those,” he said.
The workers, who began organizing several months ago, were drawn to the worker-led nature of the ALU, he added.
“We wanted to go with a union made up of workers and people who understand our unique environment,” he said.
The organizing partnerships with ALU highlight the significance of the union’s victory, Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University, told ABC News.
“To prove that success is possible is huge,” she said. “The inspiration to stay and organize and fight to improve things is really significant.”
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk is terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
“Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to ‘make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform'” and did not receive it, the filing stated.
Fake accounts have become a sticking point in Musk’s rollercoaster bid to acquire the social media platform, with the Tesla CEO previously threatening to end his agreement over concerns about the prevalence of bot and spam accounts
In the filing on Friday, Musk’s attorney claimed that Twitter “is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement” and appears to have made “false and misleading representations” when entering into the agreement.
Twitter stock is down about 6% in after-hours trading.
ABC News’ has reached out to Twitter for comment.
ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Dai Sugano/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — The federal fraud case against the top executives of the failed biotech company Theranos posed an interesting tale of two different trials, according to ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis.
Jarvis, the host and creator “The Dropout,” ABC News’ podcast that chronicled the case against its founder Elizabeth Holmes, spoke with “Start Here,” Friday following the conviction of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former president and COO of Theranos, on fraud charges.
A jury on Thursday convicted Balwani, Holmes’ former romantic partner, on 12 counts of fraud for his role in defrauding investors and patients.
The company claimed it could run any blood test using only a few drops of blood via its so-called proprietary technology. However, according to prosecutors, their product, a machine called “Edison,” could never run more than a dozen blood tests at a time.
Balwani joined Theranos in 2009, six years after Holmes created the startup, and quickly rose to be its president and chief operating officer.
Holmes, who faced 11 counts of fraud, one less than Balwani, was convicted on only four counts of fraud in January, which related to investors.
The feds originally charged Balwani and Holmes together, but their trials were later severed after Holmes revealed she may testify to abuse at the hands of Balwani. He denied those allegations.
Jarvis said Holmes taking the stand was a key factor in the different outcomes.
“[The abuse claims] did not come up at his trial, but for during [Holmes’] seven days of testimony, they were a big portion of what she talked about,” Jarvis told “Start Here.”
“The biggest difference is that he didn’t take the stand to say, ‘I didn’t do this,’ or…raise his own objections to the claims against him.”
Jarvis noted that after the federal government filed its charges against the duo, Balwani’s attorney initially told her, in 2018, this was a business failure and they were in it together. Things changed once they faced separate trials and evidence such as texts and e-mails that implicated that Balwani came to light.
“You think about a jury who is supposed to know nothing about any of their backstory, and they’re shown these things like…case pictures of her so much younger than him, supposedly having to rely on him for his expertise,” she said.
“You can imagine where the jury may have found that presentation more sympathetic than Sunny Balwani who had experience,” she said.
Holmes is scheduled to be sentenced in September and Balwani later this year. Both face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison per count.
Holmes’s attorneys have filed an appeal and Balwani’s attorneys are expected to follow suit, according to Jarvis. However, Jarvis said legal scholars and other experts say those appeals are rarely successful.
However, the case will have a broader impact on the business world and how future start-ups present themselves to investors and customers, she said.
“You don’t get to run a successful business on what might happen in the future. You can’t tell investors what might happen in the future. You can’t tell patients that your product might someday be up to snuff when it isn’t,” Jarvis said.
Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Amazon members are already primed to enjoy perks of speedy delivery and now, that can include food from hundreds of thousands of restaurants.
The food delivery service has teamed up with Amazon to offer Prime members a free, one-year Grubhub+ membership.
The new membership for U.S. customers includes unlimited $0 delivery fees from restaurants that participate on Grubhub nationwide, the companies announced in a press release.
“More than half (53%) of adults and nearly two-thirds (64%) of millennials admit that purchasing takeout and delivery food is ‘essential’ to the way they live, but only one-third (38%) of Americans report using third-party delivery companies like Grubhub at least some of the time,” the food delivery service reported.
Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, explained that the new feature for Prime members “is our way of saying ‘thank you.'”
“The value of a Prime membership continues to grow with this offer, and this year is shaping up to be a great time to enjoy the convenience, savings, fun and deliciousness that membership provides,” Ghani added.
Grubhub+ members will also get access to member-only perks and rewards. Members also enjoy a donation match on Grubhub+ orders through Grubhub’s Donate the Change program, which raised more than $25 million in 2021 alone, benefiting more than 20 charitable organizations.
This offer is available to Prime members all year long.
(NEW YORK) — As recession fears grow, officials on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C., will be watching employment data on Friday to see if aggressive borrowing cost increases from the Federal Reserve have slowed a monthslong stretch of robust U.S. hiring — suggesting economic activity may be quieting down.
The jobs report is expected to show that U.S. employers hired 273,000 workers last month, a marked slowdown in payrolls from the 390,000 jobs added during the month prior, according to a survey from Bloomberg. The survey predicts that the unemployment rate will remain at 3.6%.
The new data arrives at a precarious moment. Across the economy, acute financial distress could grow as the Fed pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to dial back sky-high inflation but risks tipping the economy into a recession. At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994.
“It’s amazing how head-spinning the predictions of the economy have been,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist at The New School for Social Resarch. “Inflation was the top issue before the Fed met last month and now it’s recession,” she added.
Heightening the sense of economic uncertainty, the S&P 500 suffered its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970, falling 20.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further over that period, dropping more than 28%.
Economic data released this week presented a mixed picture of the job market. Employers posted 11.3 million job openings in May, a dropoff from the peak of 11.8 million in March but far higher than pre-pandemic levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The statistics indicate that demand for workers dipped but remained strong in May.
On the other hand, data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed that jobless claims stood at 235,000 last week, an increase of 4,000 from the week prior and the highest seen since mid-January. The data suggests that the tight labor market may be loosening, a possible sign of an economic slowdown.
Ghilarducci, the labor economist, cautioned that the persistence of a low unemployment rate in June may not mean that the economy remains in good shape, since the unemployment rate often lags behind overall economic trends.
“The unemployment rate is a note from a different time,” she said.
Still, the White House and the Federal Reserve will be watching closely to see if the data reveals anything about their difficult tight-rope walk of fighting sky-high prices by slowing down demand, while simultaneously avoiding the type of steep slowdown that could cause a recession.
In recent months, strong hiring has turned the monthly jobs report into a recurring indicator of the hot U.S. labor market.
Prior to May, the U.S. enjoyed a streak of 12 straight months in which it added at least 400,000 jobs. Meanwhile, for the past three months of jobs data — from March to May — the unemployment rate has stood at 3.6%, a tick above the 3.5% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw in February 2020.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. saw stronger than expected job growth in June, as the economy added 372,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The data shows moderately lower but robust job growth, despite aggressive borrowing cost increases from the Federal Reserve.
The leisure and hospitality industry continued to show strong growth, adding 67,000 jobs, though a slight dip from the positions added over the month prior. Jobs were also added in health care and professional and business services.
The labor force participation rate, a measure of working-age Americans who hold jobs or are actively looking for one, inched down to 62.2% in June, suggesting that workers still remain on the sidelines. That figure stands 1.2 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels seen in February 2020.
Wage increases — a key metric for observers of inflation focused on consumer demand — rose 0.3% over last month and 5.1% over the past year. Those measures are largely unchanged from the report released a month prior.
The new data arrives at a precarious moment. Across the economy, acute financial distress could grow as the Fed pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to dial back sky-high inflation but risks tipping the economy into a recession. At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994.
“It’s amazing how head-spinning the predictions of the economy have been,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist at The New School for Social Resarch. “Inflation was the top issue before the Fed met last month and now it’s recession,” she added.
Heightening the sense of economic uncertainty, the S&P 500 suffered its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970, falling 20.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further over that period, dropping more than 28%.
Economic data released this week presented a mixed picture of the job market. Employers posted 11.3 million job openings in May, a dropoff from the peak of 11.8 million in March but far higher than pre-pandemic levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The statistics indicate that demand for workers dipped but remained strong in May.
On the other hand, data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed that jobless claims stood at 235,000 last week, an increase of 4,000 from the week prior and the highest seen since mid-January. The data suggests that the tight labor market may be loosening, a possible sign of an economic slowdown.
Ghilarducci, the labor economist, cautioned that the persistence of a low unemployment rate in June may not mean that the economy remains in good shape, since the unemployment rate often lags behind overall economic trends.
“The unemployment rate is a note from a different time,” she said.
Still, the White House and the Federal Reserve are watching closely to see if jobs data reveals anything about their difficult tight-rope walk of fighting sky-high prices by slowing down demand, while simultaneously avoiding the type of steep slowdown that could cause a recession.
In recent months, strong hiring had turned the monthly jobs report into a recurring indicator of the hot U.S. labor market.
Prior to May, the U.S. enjoyed a streak of 12 straight months in which it added at least 400,000 jobs. Meanwhile, for the past three months of jobs data — from March to May — the unemployment rate has stood at 3.6%, a tick above the 3.5% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw in February 2020.
On Friday, April and May numbers were revised to show 74,000 fewer jobs added in those months.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a slew of major U.S. companies said they will cover travel costs for employees who cannot access an abortion where they live.
High-profile brands like Apple, Target, Starbucks, Amazon and Disney, ABC News’ parent company, are among those that vowed to help employees afford such travel, as 26 states are “certain or likely” to ban abortion in the aftermath of the court ruling, the Guttmacher Institute predicted in October. In several states, abortion bans have already taken hold.
But the new policies position companies as a key bulwark for abortion rights in states banning the procedure, raising concerns over the privacy of employees who may share intimate details of their personal lives in order to access the subsidy for travel costs. Fear of retribution or discrimination based on the desire to access the employee benefit could dissuade women from using it, experts told ABC News.
Assessing such privacy concerns is difficult in the early days of these policies, when companies are still figuring out exactly what implementation will require and the state-by-state legal environment remains in flux, the experts said. They added that federal law offers robust, albeit incomplete protection for the confidentiality of medical information, urging companies to administer the plan through a health insurer rather than deliver the benefit directly.
“Women should not assume with these policies that their privacy is absolutely 100% guaranteed,” said Wendy Parmet, a professor of health law at Northwestern University. “On the other hand, there are protections.”
“We risk the situation in which the fear itself becomes a more formidable barrier to access to needed care than the actual laws,” she added.
A central question for the new policies covering travel for abortion procedures hinges on whether companies administer the subsidy through an insurer or do it themselves, experts said.
If the benefit is provided through an insurer, then employees will retain the strong privacy protections that they receive whenever pursuing a medical procedure or health benefit through employer-provided health insurance, said Sharona Hoffman, a health law professor at Case Western Reserve University. In such cases, HIPAA prevents the release of medical information about a patient, she added.
If a company provides the benefit directly, then those same privacy protections will not apply. “HIPAA doesn’t apply to employers — there’s no HIPAA privacy coverage,” Hoffman said.
She noted that federal law does offer some confidentiality protections for sensitive medical information held by an employer through the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“If they learn somebody has HIV or cancer, they can’t disclose that to anyone else, unless they have to disclose it to a supervisor who has to provide accommodations to personnel,” she said, noting that it’s unclear how such protections will apply in the case of women seeking to use a company’s coverage for abortion-related travel.
Experts also emphasized the uncertain implications of potential legislation that may aim to prevent people from traveling to other states for an abortion. If such a law took effect and empowered law enforcement to subpoena information from companies or insurers that administer the travel subsidy, then they could be forced to turn over information.
“There’s a HIPAA exception for law enforcement,” said Hoffman, the health law professor at Case Western Reserve University. “Even health care providers have to respond to requests from law enforcement.”
Companies must establish guidelines for how they will respond to potential legal attacks on their policies, said Sonja Spoo, the director of reproductive rights campaigns at the feminist advocacy group UltraViolet.
“If you’re going to provide these benefits to workers, you need to make sure you have a plan in place to protect them,” she said. “Make sure employees are safe from attempts by whoever is in power to see information and weaponize it.”
ABC News posed questions about privacy concerns to 20 top companies that have announced policies that cover travel for employees who cannot access abortion nearby. Eight companies responded, of which seven provided a general comment about their policies but did not answer questions about privacy protections.
One company, Yelp, responded directly to questions from ABC News about privacy concerns regarding its policy.
“The privacy and safety of our employees were critical to how we would introduce this benefit, which is administered through our health insurance provider, ensuring confidentiality,” a Yelp spokesperson told ABC News. “Yelp will never receive any information on who incurred a claim and/or received reimbursement.”
Several companies responded to privacy questions about their policies covering employee travel with general statements on the new policies, including Bank of America, Lyft, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
“We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services,” a Meta spokesperson told ABC News. “We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.”
As the political and legal terrain shifts, companies will need to constantly adapt to ensure employee information remains private, Kirsten Vignec, an employment attorney at the law firm Hill Ward Henderson, told ABC News.
“This is the beginning — not the end — of the transition as a result of the change in precedent,” she said.
