HIPAA PRIVACY RULE – PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT INFORMATION

Webdale v. North Gen. Hosp., No. 111310/99 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. March 21, 2005)

A New York trial court ruled that an individual who disclosed information related to his psychiatric treatment in a criminal trial waived any privilege that might have protected that information from disclosure in a subsequent civil lawsuit. The individual in question, who had a long history of paranoid schizophrenia, was convicted of murder for pushing a victim in front of a train. Information regarding his mental health was never actually introduced into evidence in his trial, but it was disclosed in an appellate brief. Later, the victim's family sued several institutions that had treated the individual, and attempted to obtain his psychiatric records. The court found that since the individual had made his mental health information a matter of public record, he had waived any privilege that might have prevented it from being disclosed to the victim's family under state law. The court also noted that, because it would issue an order that the information in question be disclosed, the HIPAA Privacy Rule did not prevent the disclosure.