Health Privacy Overview
Background and Current Law
Individuals have traditionally relied upon the understandingthat the physician-patient relationship is confidential. However,legally, the physician-patient confidentiality privilege is limitedto courtroom situations where issues of disclosure may arise.Many disclosures of personally identifiable medical recordsare made expressly with the consent of the patient. Informed consentby the patient has traditionally been offered as the primary mechanismfor limiting access to individually identifiable records.The patient’s expectation that information supplied to a physicianis confidential may no longer be realistic. A growing number ofdisclosures occur, without the express consent of the patient,to public health agencies, health researchers, fraud and abuseinvestigators, and law enforcement agencies.The broad nature of…
