On June 25, 2025, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act No. 25-97, “An Act Concerning Various Revisions to the Public Health Statutes” (the Act). The Act includes a wide range of provisions affecting...more
Today the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) finalized rules published in December of 2022 changing the requirements for handling SUD patient information governed by 45 CFR part 2 (Part 2)....more
For years, federal privacy laws relating to substance abuse disorder (SUD) treatment records have differed in significant ways from federal privacy laws relating to other medical records. Changes, however, are afoot. Almost...more
More than thirty years ago, the Washington Supreme Court ruled defense counsel may not engage in ex parte communications with a plaintiff’s treating physician. Loudon v. Mhyre, 110 Wn.2d 675, 676 (1988). The Loudon rule, as...more
On November 12, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court extended corporate attorney-client privilege protection to appropriate ex parte communications between defendant hospitals and their non-employee agents. The court’s decision...more
The Washington Supreme Court decided that a corporation's attorney-client privilege may protect communications with independent contractors and other non-employee agents in a recent decision styled Hermanson v. MultiCare...more
The opioid crises has raised a number of concerns for physicians, particularly those treating chronic illness. Heightened regulatory scrutiny of physician activity raises questions over how physicians should respond to...more
Connecticut state and federal courts faced a number of significant health care issues last year. We have summarized those cases that we think are particularly relevant to Connecticut hospitals, group practices and individual...more
Big hospitals can’t exploit patients and violate their privacy by throwing open their facilities to Hollywood for television shows that plump institutions’ reputations. And academic medical centers need to think twice before...more
In the second episode of our series on the national opioid crisis, Gina Bertolini discusses the overlay of recent guidance concerning privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and...more
• The Florida Supreme Court has dealt a significant blow to Florida's medical malpractice pre-suit process, ruling that statutes authorizing the conduct of informal, ex parte interviews with a medical malpractice claimant's...more
Most states have laws either requiring or permitting mental health professionals to disclose information about patients who may become violent. These voluntary or mandatory reporting laws require a balancing of the...more
New Ethical Guidelines - On June 13, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a new ethical guidance policy governing the practice of telemedicine that will be published in the coming months. The policy is based on...more