A Patient�s Right to Medical Privacy Denied
Beginning last year everyone who has seen a doctor, picked up a prescription, or gone for a medical test should have been informed, in writing, of new medical privacy rights or what they were told were new rights. What you may not have been told is that the only new thing--is the notice, but your right to medical privacy was not made more secure under the new rules. A recent federal court ruling affirmed that a third party could decide what medical information could be shared with a third party, without a patient�s consent.
Judge upholds changes to medical-privacy law, Philadelphia Inquirer , April 3, 2004
