Confidentiality Laws

Professionally, there’s a doctor-patient privilege in the course of the former’s discharge of duty. This means that the information shared is confidential and access to such records must only be limited to doctors directly involved in treating the patient. It’s unprofessional for a doctor to disclose a patient’s records to a third party. Laws are in place to protect a patient’s privacy. The Health Insurance and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has a confidentiality decree which sets down principles to safeguard patients’ medical data and individual health information including psychiatric information. This paper seeks to review the application of confidentiality and privacy laws for instance, who does it bind? It will also address the exceptions thereto, like the cases when such classified information can be released to a third party. The paper also examines the laws that are in place to protect psychologists if they disclose such confidential information to a third party. It will also review different State’s legislation on the same, and whether they are mandatory or permissive. Lastly, I will give my opinion on the confidentiality laws and how they can be improved.
Psychotherapy, to begin with, works very well when one is open and honest. This means that the patient becomes entirely submissive to his doctor on personal information that in some cases are not as pleasant as such. A patient will only be comfortable disclosing their private information if they are guaranteed that such information will not leave the room.

It goes without saying therefore that confidentiality laws bind both the mental health doctors and psychotherapists; they should abide by them at all times, and every psychologist should give written information and clearly explain to the patients how the privacy policies apply. The health care provider should also outline how their personal information recorded will be handled or kept safe to limit its access to only the doctor. The policies should also include the case or instances when their information is subject to an exception from the privacy rule (Londoño-McConnell &Larson, 2016). The information to be kept private is the health information and the records disclosed by the patient.
However, there are exceptions to this privacy rule. As is almost always the case, most general rules in law have exceptions, and the privacy rule wouldn’t be any different. There are some specific situations when psychologists can share the client’s information without their written consent (Londoño-McConnell &Larson, 2016). The first exception is a psychologist may disclose private information without consent to protect the patient or the public from serious injury, for example, when the client plans to attempt suicide or any act that will harm a lot of people. Secondly, psychologists may release private information under a court order. A person’s sanity may be questioned during legal proceedings. This may also be the case if, at a criminal trial, the defendant’s attorney raises the defense of insanity. This was illustrated in the Scottish case of M’Naghten (Diamond, 1956). The psychologist will have to disclose the mental records in this instance to back those claims.
Thirdly, doctors may disclose the information to insurance firms or government programs like Medicare who are in turn bound by HIPAA to keep the information confidential. The reason for this disclosure is so that the company or government program can determine what care is covered once the records have been reviewed. This provision is of significance for insurance firms in that in most cases involving mental health, assessing authentic and relevant data may be quite difficult. The fourth reason for disclosing such sensitive information is to communicate with a patient’s family members, friends or others involved in the patient’s care (Londoño-McConnell &Larson, 2016). Lastly is to divulge to the law enforcement agencies about the release of a patient brought in for an emergency psychiatric hold. This information is aimed at helping the psychiatrists concerned to make quick decisions that will contribute to calming down or help the patient if it’s an emergency issue.
When the doctor seeks to reveal the patient’s record, he or she should first consider if the patient is in a position to give the green light or not. If the patient lacks that standing and it’s for his or her own good that the disclosure is made to the third party, the doctor is allowed to make that exposé under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. However, the data to be revealed must be unswervingly significant to the third party’s role in the patient’s treatment. This upholds the standard, and basic ethical practices demanded of a mental health doctor in his or her professional duty.
In my opinion, the best state law is; Section 164.510(b) (3) of the HIPAA Privacy Rule which allows a doctor, if a patient is incapable for one reason or another to give approval on the disclosure. To decide if revealing the patient’s information to his next of kin or friends is to the advantage of the patient (Dwyer III, Weaver & Hughes, 2004). Where the doctor decides that disclosing is for the good of the patient, he is only allowed to reveal what is straightforwardly useful to the third party’s role in the patient’s treatment. This is the law that stands out as the best for the reason that it guards the principal interest of the patient. But only if it’s kept in check to avoid its manipulation to suit a doctor or the third party in orchestrating their personal vendettas that do not, in any case, help the patient.
This law is permissive; this is based on the fact that the doctor is allowed to reveal information to a third party if such disclosure is of direct significance to the patient. Confidentiality and protect laws serve a very vital purpose in the field of psychology as it preserves the right to privacy and human dignity. This also makes the psychological practice trustworthy in the public eye, thus increasing the probability of the individuals in distress to seek medical assistance from the relevant institutions that have been set aside. These regulations can be improved through proper and adequate awareness; by ensuring that written confidentiality policies and procedures are developed, and all citizens must be made aware of the existence of such legislation to protect their privacy. They law should be strict and vigilant in detecting violation or manipulation of the law to suit their selfish interests.
References
Diamond, B. L. (1956). Isaac Ray and the trial of Daniel M’Naghten. American Journal of Psychiatry, 112(8), 651-656.
Dwyer III, S. J., Weaver, A. C., & Hughes, K. K. (2004). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Security Issues in the Digital Medical Enterprise, 72(2), 9-18.
Londoño-McConnell, A. &Larson, S. (2016). Protecting your privacy: Understanding confidentiality.http://www.apa.org. Retrieved 2 December 2016, from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/confidentiality.aspx