[Judith Anne]

Private medical records with the patient's name removed are used all the time for many purposes. Lawsuits containing private medical information with the names removed are used all the time, specifically for training purposes--for medical people and probably likely for lawyers.

Your private medical records are not and have never been private. The hospital owns your medical records if you were there, you don't. The treating physician, when you go see one, owns your medical records, you don't.

But you are supposed to have the right of privacy over those records, after the pharmacy, the insurance company clerks, the billing office have all had a look at them.

As a nurse, I could lose my license if I EVER gave out private medical information. But I am certain that insurance company clerks (who decide who should and who shouldn't get a particular medical procedure paid) have no such licensure problems.

So, do I have a problem with a court getting a doctor's files on partial birth abortions he has performed, as long as identifying information is blocked out? No, I don't. If a freakin pharmacy tech can have the information with the name and address attached, I see no reason to withhold the information from a court, with the identifying information blocked out.

[spunkets]

"The hospital owns your medical records if you were there, you don't. The treating physician, when you go see one, owns your medical records, you don't."

They are your records. You own them. The doc and hospital are required to keep them. An individual can buy and keep a copy for other docs to use, but the original is required to be kept by the med folks.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

Thank you for clearing that up for me. If the Justice Department needs the records, with the identifying information blocked out, and the court rules they can't have them, then the lawsuit should be thrown out. JMHO.

[codercpc]

As a nurse, I could lose my license if I EVER gave out private medical information. But I am certain that insurance company clerks (who decide who should and who shouldn't get a particular medical procedure paid) have no such licensure problems.

Actually, under the law (State and Federal), anyone who has access to medical records, in the course of their job, is subject to fines,jail-time, and job termination if they reveal any part of the medical record to anyone who does not need to know.

I am certified coder, and it would also result in the immediate repeal of my certification (and my job) if I breached confidentially.