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Q: Patient confidentiality breach
asked by: ruralmom on March 26th, 2008
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This is long-sorry! My sister and I used to see the same Family Practitioner. Sister battles severe depression/anxiety. We all talk openly with each other and with Dr. Have for years.

Sister wasn't doing well, I called Dr.
Dr. ended up telling me sister had just had an abortion. ( sister is very pro-life/worked for years for right to life org even) Dr worried that without mental help, sister would "not survive" "mentally or physically". Asked me to help her/without telling her where info came from.
Without telling how I knew, went to sister in love, offered support. She and husband freaked out/denied the abortion, have now threatened to sue Dr. AND me. Dr. has now threatened ME with lawsuit for "lieing' about her. ( she denies telling me).

It's a mess! Anyone know what laws are here? Surely I can't get in any trouble?? I've still never told them where I got my info from. Assuming they just figured it out/who else would know? Can Dr. get in trouble? Should she?? She just wanted help for my sister.
I'm so confused!
Untill this happened, my sister and I were VERY close!
Abortion causes so much damage!!
Thanks for any insight.
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mominashoe
replied on March 26th, 2008
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Um ok....I'm not knowledgeable about the actual laws, but as far as I know, no one can sue you. It might have been careless for you to just bring up thing situation to your sister because obviously she wanted to keep it private, but you wanted make her happy, so that's understandable in a way...but you could have done it without mentioning what exactly you knew about.

The HIPPA confidentiality agreement is between the doctor and the patient. It means that they cannot discuss the patient's information without the patients consent. Usually this is done for other clinics needing the information with transfers....the patient normally signs off for the paperwork. They are not even allowed to discuss medical situations over the phone with the patient.

The doctor can be sued and even lose her license to be practice and be fined..... You are not at fault for the doctor telling you about it. It's totally her fault, she knows the rules and she broke them.

The doctor cannot sue you. That is just an intimidation move to scare you away. You actually can side with your sister as a witness of the breach of professional agreement. You should encourage your sister to get a lawyer and sue that doctor, because she will win.

That's all my 2 cents, for what it's worth!

I looked up the HIPPA site for you, where you can look into it more.

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/
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