Legal Question in Workers Comp in Illinois

Re: work comp and Hipaa

The Workers' Compensation Act, Section 8(a), provides that upon written request your doctor is to provide the complete medical records and bills related to your work injury.

So, in that sense you do not need to provide an "authorization" for your records to be released.

However, if you feel that there has been a violation of your privacy beyond that, you can feel free to email me for more information.

Good luck,

Matt Belcher

Re: work comp and Hipaa

A couple of areas where this might have been abused...

The doctor is only supposed to release information related to the workman's comp injury. So, for example, if you hurt your back at work, that does not give the doctor permission to tell your boss about the fungus problem you have with your feet.

Also, the employer is not allowed to publicize the information. So if the your co-workers all start telling you what interesting x-rays you have, there has probably been a breech of confidentiality.