Re: S. 1360 - Medical Priva

["Marc Rotenberg" <rotenberg@epic.org>]

        Reply to:   RE>>S. 1360 - Medical Privacy - CPT statement for
today's...



Bob's postings about the need to have federal privacy legislation
are helpful, but they do not actually tell us what type of legislation 
we should we have.

I found very interesting the opinion of the federal court that
recently considered the question of whether there should be
a privilege for non-certified therapists.  The case concerned the
records of counseling that a Chicago policewoman received after
she shot a suspect in the course of criminal investigation.  The
family of the deceased  brought a wrongful death action and
sought to obtain the records of the counseling session through
civil discovery.  The federal appeals court had this to say:

   "Reason tells us that psychotherapists and patients share 
   a unique relationship, in which the patient's ability to 
   communicate freely without the fear of public disclosure 
   is the key to successful treatment," Jaffe v. Redmond, 
    51 F.3d 1346,  (CA7 1995), cert. granted.

I read section 206 to permit this type of disclosure after
subpoena and notice with opportunity to quash. The question
is why should this information ever be disclosed, or to
be more legislative, why doesn't S. 1360 extend rule 501
to cover this situation?

Marc.