Georgia personal injury lawyers pleased with state Supreme Court decision on patient privacy
Georgia personal injury lawyers are encouraged by a recent decision of the state Supreme Court in a medical malpractice action.
In Moreland v. Austin, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevents a defendant’s attorney from informally interviewing a plaintiff’s prior treating physician in medical malpractice cases. The case which sparked this decision involved the wife of a deceased patient who filed suit against her husband’s physician. The plaintiff produced her husband’s written medical records including the records kept by three doctors that treated her husband prior to the defendant. The plaintiff’s attorneys then orally contacted the three prior treating physicians to gain insight into the cardiovascular condition and prognosis of the deceased. The plaintiff argued that oral communication with prior physicians was improper under federal law. The question became whether Georgia law or the federal law known as HIPPA should be used in deciding if this method of contact was proper.
The Court first determined that HIPAA trumps Georgia law, since HIPAA grants patients more control over the disclosure of their medical information. The Court then reasoned that HIPAA requires a patient’s express consent or court order before a prior treating physician can orally communicate medical information to a defendant’s attorney. The exception is if the patient is given reasonable notice and an opportunity to object to a defendant’s request to contact the prior treating physicians. The Court found that the plaintiff did not consent to the communications when she failed to object to the defendant’s request for medical documents. The reason is that those requests were for written documents and not the oral contact. Thus, the defendant’s attorneys had violated HIPAA. The Court went on to decide that the sanction for violating HIPAA is generally within the trial court’s discretion.
This is good news for patients and their right to privacy. Our firm represents people who have suffered serious injuries through medical malpractice and negligence. We hope this decision will help protect our clients and insure fairness in these difficult cases.
