Right to privacy and confidentiality of medical records

The conflict between the demands of third party payers and the physician's ethical obligations to patients, complicated by a multitude of laws controlling the disclosure of confidential information, continues to provide a source of confusion in occupational medicine. Although, in theory, an attorney could review all requests for release of medical information on patients, the best approach for a physician may be to treat all information as confidential and to obtain adequate consents for release that fulfill the requirements of all potentially applicable state and federal laws, even when the physician-patient privilege appears to be waived or abolished. This would protect the practitioner from the inadvertent release of privileged information, whether it be an unauthorized ex parte communication or information related to sexually transmitted diseases, HIV status, or substance abuse.