North Carolina Deals Harshly with HIPAA Violation
For most lawyers and physicians, “HIPAA-compliant” authorizations have become part of the routine when a patient’s medical records must be disclosed to the parties to a lawsuit. But the North Carolina Court of Appeals has taken that process out of the routine, and placed it front and center for physicians, according to injuryboard.com.
In that state, a woman sued one of her doctors for failing to diagnose breast cancer, and lost. However, she apparently discovered that the radiologist who had read her mammogram films released them to the defendant-doctor’s expert witness in the malpractice action, without authorization of any kind. She proceeded to bring a medical malpractice action against the radiologist, based solely on the failure to obtain proper authorization before disclosing the records. And, according to Brent Adams of injuryboard.com, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld the claim.
Unfortunately, there is no further detail explaining the circumstances behind the Court’s upholding the claim. But the hard line taken by the North Carolina Court of Appeals should serve as a clear warning to physicians who may be tempted to share patient records without proper authorization from the patient. By extension, it should also serve as a warning to all of us lawyers who must obtain and review medical records as part of our regular practice. Like it or not, HIPAA must be obeyed, and we New Yorkers are too smart to need a New York lawsuit based on unauthorized disclosure of medical records to keep us in line with the statute.
UPDATE On Fertility Clinic That Enabled Mother of Octuplets
The Medical Board of California is investigating the fertility clinic that is said to have helped Nadya Suleman conceive all 14 of her children, according to whittierdailynews.com, of Whittier, California. The Board disclosed that it wants to determine whether the act of implanting such a high volume of embryos violated the standard of care.
News to Begin the Week
- Did the fertility docs who impregnated the California woman who just birthed octuplets commit medical malpractice? In light of the mother’s reproductive history, that is a question that merits serious consideration, according to Washington State’s News Tribune.
- Head of Illinois Trial Lawyers speaks out against tort reform that unfairly penalizes those plaintiffs who are most in need of damages awards.
- New York Court Watcher finds that Jonathan Lippman, nominee for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, is not anti-plaintiff.
- Time waiting to see your doctor should be factored into the cost of healthcare in this country, according to Alan Kreuger, in today’s NY Times Economix Blog. You, like an acquaintance of Mr. Kreuger’s, may want to present your doctor with a bill for your time after being kept waiting for an inordinately long time. After all, time is money, even your time.
- Justice Ginsburg appears to have an improved prognosis, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. This news is quite refreshing, given last week’s macabre speculation in the blogosphere about possible successors. As most of you know, Justice Ginsburg was just operated on for pancreatic cancer, and had previous surgery for colon cancer.