Prof. Kirtley Discusses Massachusetts Judge's Expansion of Permissible Disclosures to the Media Under HIPAA

Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly article about a state judge's decision that health care providers may comment to the media about a patient's care if the patient has already made the information public. Kirtley characterized the enactment of HIPAA as having caused "a seismic shift" in the availability of health care information under state open records laws, and that this new decision "allows providers to say something other than 'no comment' . . . on a matter of public concern." However, she added that she is skeptical that regulatory agencies or federal courts will agree that the patient's decision to provide his records to the Boston Globe constituted a waiver of HIPAA confidentiality provisions.