Connecticut Court Takes Up Doctor-Patient Confidentiality

The Connecticut Supreme Court will be deciding an issue that most people may think is already settled -- whether doctors have a duty to keep patients' medical records confidential.

A trial court judge in Bridgeport ruled in 2015 that Connecticut law, unlike laws in many other states, has yet to recognize a duty of confidentiality between doctors and their patients, or that communications between patients and doctors are privileged under common law.

The decision came in a paternity case where a doctors' office in Westport sent the medical file of a child's mother without her permission to a probate court under a subpoena issued by the father's lawyer and the father was able to look at the file.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case Monday.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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