HIPAA allows police access to patients, federal judge rules

The case highlights the interplay between state and federal laws on sharing medical information about alleged crime victims, experts say.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. May 21, 2007.

HIPAA privacy rules do not bar law enforcement from having access to patients who are victims of alleged crimes, a Louisiana federal judge recently ruled. The decision affirmed that police had the right to arrest a hospital case worker for obstruction of justice when she tried to stop police from questioning a patient.

The ruling likely will not embolden state authorities to barge into the treatment room, experts say.

"But the facts are perhaps a wake-up call," said Philip H. Lebowitz, a HIPAA lawyer and partner with Philadelphia-based Duane Morris LLP. "It does point out that what you might think is the right thing to do might not be under HIPAA."

Elizabeth Maier, the hospital employee at the center of the case, sued the police for falsely arresting her when she kept local police from seeing a patient who was being treated for alleged domestic abuse at Lafayette General Medical Center. The patient did not want to report the incident, but a nurse already had called 911, according to court records. Maier was never prosecuted.

During the encounter, Maier told police that HIPAA requires a patient's consent before disclosing private medical information. She argued in her lawsuit that the nurse who called the police to report the abuse had violated the patient's confidentiality under HIPAA. Maier also said police should have known she was just doing her job to protect the patient's privacy.

The police, on the other hand, argued that Louisiana law requires them to investigate reports of domestic violence once they are made and that Maier's actions prevented them from doing their duty.