In this day and age of HIPPA privacy acts, is it possible to get a copy of someone’s test results if the results concern someone else, as in the case of a communicable disease? And if person A doesn’t consent to share the information, can the doctor of person B get the results from the doctor of person A anyhow?
I have read the Board rules and am fully aware that I should not rely on information obtained from the message boards for medical or legal advice, and I am just asking for personal opinions. If either of my own doctors were actually in town I would ask them, and I will when they return from their vacations.
To the best of my understanding (I am a medical professional trained in HIPAA regulations to the extent that they affect my particular job), if you do not have consent from person A, person B is out of luck.
However, I would suggest if all person B is concerned about is whether or not they’re infected themselves, then just go get tested for whatever it is person B is worried about. Most everything I can think of should be able to be tested for within a very short period of time after whatever contact was involved. HIV used to take months but there are faster tests now that can give a result within (IIRC) days of the contact.
Certain communicable diseases may be public health issues (eg: tuberculosis, SARS, etc) and the doctor may have a responsibility to call the health department and say “Hey, I got Typhoid Mary here” but even then, the information release is abstract. “There’s a patient with avian flu in my office.”
On an informal shooting the breeze in the doctors’ lounge way, Doc B might ask what A’s patient has, and Doc A could say “I’ve seen a couple patients with XYZ, you might want to test for that.” They’ve not explicitly revealed what their patient has, but they’ve certainly aimed Doc B in that direction.
I have been trained in HIPAA regulations as well and, as others have said, you are flat out of luck getting that information directly if the person does not consent. There is no way around that.