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.