US Appeals Court Upholds Florida's Record Release Law in Medical Liability Suits

October 15, 2014—The AMA Wire, a news publication from the American Medical Association (AMA), reported that a federal appeals court has upheld Florida’s Medical Malpractice Act that requires plaintiffs to release their relevant protected health information before proceeding with allegations of medical liability. In the case, Murphy v Dulay, the appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that said the Florida law requiring the release of relevant health information was impermissible under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

As reported in AMA Wire, the state law requires authorization from a person seeking to bring a medical liability lawsuit so that the prospective defendant may obtain documents and conduct interviews with the plaintiff’s other medical professionals on matters pertinent to the liability claim. The appeals court found that the written authorization form required by the Florida law “is fully compliant with the HIPAA statute and its regulations.”

According to the AMA Wire, the state law is patterned after a Texas law passed in 2003, which has enabled information sharing during early stages of medical liability claims. The purpose of the law is to screen out frivolous lawsuits and promote early settlement of claims that do have merit. The AMA Wire advised that a brief prepared by the Litigation Center of the AMA, the Florida Medical Association, and the Texas Medical Association noted that as a result of the law, “the frequency of meritless claims has dropped substantially.” The brief stated that other benefits of the law include improved access to care, an increase in physicians generally, and a greater number of specialists serving at-risk patients and rural communities, reported the AMA Wire.

A summary of the Murphy v Delay case is available online at the Litigation Cent of the AMA’s website.