HIPAA

Gibson v. State, No. 09-06-307-CR (Tex. App. May 23, 2007)

The Court of Appeals of Texas ruled that the testimony of a licensed psychiatrist – that the defendant/father had admitted to sexually abusing his daughter – was admissible pursuant to a HIPAA exception. In appealing the conviction, the father argued that his medical records were improperly obtained by the state, and therefore the testimony of the psychiatrist should have been excluded. The appeals court found that the medical records were obtained through a grand jury subpoena and affirmed the trial court's ruling that the testimony of the psychiatrist was admissible since "HIPAA specifically authorizes a covered entity to disclose protected health information for a law enforcement purpose without an individual's permission in response to a grand jury subpoena."