Legal question involving Bipolar Husband

[vsantos]

    Hi everyone,
  
    The following question was raised recently in court hearing with my husband (we're trying to settle for Visitation w/ 3 year old).
    For the past 1 year since he tried to commit suicide and had a really bad Manic Episode (psychotic/paranoid) I have been very careful with letting him alone with our 3 year old. The thing is he prohibited his doctors form talking to me and he abruptly stopped taking all meds.
   with that said, at time I thought he was having  a relapse, or was agressive or even once when he talked about hurting himself again, I left voice message and/or send email to his Doctor just to let them know of his 'behaviors'.
     And I have always been aware of patients confidentiality and know that they  can't call me back for feedback (and I never asked them to call me back).
   I just wanted to be assured that it was safe to have my daughter around him at certain time, and I know that if a patient go to his/her doc and show any signs of wanting to hurt themselves or others, then Doctors can break confidentiality agreement and call either the person whose threat is directed or the person's doctors.

   But in court, though the Hearing has nothing to do with this, his Lawyer trying to divert the attention said that I Broke the law/ Patient's confidentiality by calling his doctors.

   Any feedback. (just so you know I have spoken to my doctors and they  said there is nothing to worry about, but I still wanted to hear form any of you who and similar experiences)
   Take care
   V  

[adel_ezz]

FURTHER, what this has to do with the real issue the judge is investigating. So whether he takes his meds or not, the issue remains the same.

Besides the issue is VERY important it's the safety of your child and it's the mother's right to being digging into all matters to make sure she took the right decision. Children are not responsible for their acts but their parents. Now one is reckless so the duty of the other is to investigate thoroughly all conditions. Further the doctor having told you a secret means he thinks you should know being vital for the case. The judge can ask him why he passed this secret to you. period

[run4you]

I agree... you can't break HIPAA from my understanding.

HIPAA is an agreement between a patient and a doctor. The doctor is bound legally by HIPAA to keep whatever information the patient wants private, private. You are under no legal restrictions by HIPAA (unless you are his doctor).

If they have any issue with HIPAA being broken, it's between your ex and his doctor. You have nothing to do with it. It's the doctor's responsibility to keep that information confidential if it's supposed to be.

[Xila31]

From what I understand of HIPAA, which is the privacy law in the USA, if you call a doctor or other healthcare worker and they tell you that the patient does not have you as a person to give information to, they can tell you nothing. You call and ask, they tell you no. End of story. The law would only be broken if you ask and they tell you anyway, or you go sneaking around in patient files when you have no business there. At that time any person who breaks the law can face up to $250,000 fine and jail time.

Also, you are not bound by HIPAA in that if your husband was acting funny and you called and left a message with his doctor, that is not breaking the law. What would be breaking the law is if the doctor spoke to you directly about what those behaviors could mean.