Hawaii Supreme Court Finds Non-Party Medical Records Protected By Physician-Patient privilege in Naipo v. Border
Keeping your medical records confidential is a significant issue to many people and arises in many different types of personal injury lawsuits. The Hawaii legislature notes that the physician-patient privilege is “[d]esigned to encourage free disclosure between physician and patient.”
Recently, the Hawaii Supreme Court reviewed when an individual’s medical records are protected by the physician-patient privilege and your constitutional right to privacy. In Naipo v. Border, the medical records of a third party – Jennifer Naipo - were sought as evidence in a separate lawsuit. Naipo objected, claiming her health information was protected by her constitutional right to privacy and her physician-patient privilege. The Hawaii Supreme Court agreed.
Under the Hawaii constitution, individuals have a privacy right to keep confidential information, which is highly personal and intimate including health information. Further, a patient has a privilege to refuse to disclose and to keep any other person from disclosing confidential communications made for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment of a patient’s physical, mental or emotional condition…”
Here Naipo, representing herself testified about her medical condition at a deposition and answered questions in response to interrogatories. Although she was advised she could refuse to answer questions that invaded her personal privacy,” she was not advised that she could refuse to answer questions about the treatment of her physical condition.
