Medical records

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that a plaintiff cannot collect damages for emotional distress for government violations of the federal Privacy Act.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that with respect to agency records related to lead poisoning, only portions that do not have “personal identifying information” can be released under the Ohio Public Records Act.

An amendment to Connecticut open record laws now allows state agencies to refuse to release records which are covered by a legal confidentiality privilege, regardless of whether such a privilege existed when the materials were created. For example, agencies may refuse to release records containing communications which are protected from disclosure by the doctor-patient or therapist-patient privileges.

A request from a Minnesota boy and his parents for a court order sealing his medical records was denied last week, The Associated Press reports.

According to the AP, Brown County Judge John Rodenberg decided that since Daniel Hauser's refusal to be treated for childhood Hodgkin's lymphoma has already become national news, the public has an overriding interest in access to the full story about the boy's medical record as it was filed in court papers. 

Vanity Fair magazine took another hit Friday in its bid for hospital records to help establish whether then-Navy Lt. John McCain was involved in a 1964 vehicle crash that may have severely injured or killed another person: A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed the magazine's lawsuit over the records.