http://www.medicalmalpractice.com/doctor-patient-confidentiality-breaches.cfm
Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Breaches
A doctor is obligated by his or her professional duty to keep your health information private. This confidentiality extends to your medical records like lab tests and x-rays, any test results, and anything you say to your doctor. The doctor’s diagnosis and opinions about your health, what was done during an examination and anything the doctor might say to you or about you to other professionals working for your health are also covered under doctor-patient confidentiality.
Why is Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Important?
Many people would avoid going to the doctor and being open and honest about symptoms if there were a fear that the doctor could make this information known to anyone who asked. A person has the right to be treated medically without that fear, while knowing that everything said or done in the doctor’s office and during treatment will remain there, and be used to treat his or her condition.
When you see a doctor for the first time, along with the forms you’ll have to fill out about your medical history and family illness history, you’ll have to fill out privacy forms. These forms give your doctor the authorization to share your medical information, as it becomes necessary. If you were to be admitted to the hospital, for instance, or need a specialist, your signature on some of these forms allows your doctor to communicate with them about your health.
Does Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Ever End?
When you stop seeing a doctor and begin with another, you can have your medical records sent to the new doctor, or you can request a copy to take to the new doctor yourself. You can request your medical records at any time—they are your property. But if your new doctor were to call your old doctor and ask questions or ask for the records, that doctor is forbidden from discussing you or sending those records unless you have given written consent.
Likewise, if a relative were to call and ask questions, the doctor could not answer them. Usually on the forms you originally fill out, there’s a place you can list those to whom you want to have access to your medical information. Anytime anyone calls for information, your file would be checked to see if that person is on the list of people whom it’s acceptable to give information, and only then could they get answers to their questions.
Even years after you’ve been treated by a doctor, your records within that doctor’s practice are still confidential and cannot be shared without your permission. Your records at any hospital or clinic fall under the same confidentiality duty. In certain cases, government health officials can demand information or the court can subpoena a doctor for information and the doctor is obligated to give that information, but these are rare cases.
Anyone else, however, whether it's your mother or your husband, cannot get information without your permission, and you can revisit the forms to change whom you’ve given permission to at any time.