an employer without the patient’s permission. The worker’s compensation claim information is not subject to the same confidentiality as other medical records. In many states claims adjusters and employers have unrestricted access to the worker’s compensation files. Also at the federal level the HIPPA privacy rules permit disclosures of protected health information for worker’s compensation purposes without the permission of the patient. (Chapter 13, p. 28) The implications of unrestricted access to a patient’s medical records that allowing a third party to use medical records for worker’s compensation or research runs the risk of the nadvertent release of personal medical information to a persons family or friends that the patient may want to keep private. This information could cost the patient their employment, a friend, or even cause problems with family members. Since people have a property interest in their medical information, forcing individuals to divulge medical information without their consent violates the Fifth Amendment.
The federal medical privacy regulation has eroded our constitutional privacy rights by giving government agencies, as well as state favored special interests, an even reater ability to access our personal medical information without our consent. (Paul, 2004) With the rules of worker’s compensation individuals do not have the right under the privacy rule to request that a physician restrict disclosure of their protected health information for worker’s compensation purposes when that information is required by law or necessary to comply with a worker’s compensation or similar law.
