HIV Patients’ Privacy Rights Violated As California Health Officials Release Names
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Lisa Leff,
Source: The Associated Press, “Groups Allege Calif Agency Shared HIV Patient Data”
Date: 09/09/2010
The Associated Press writes: “California health officials violated state privacy laws by giving personal information about thousands of HIV-positive welfare recipients to a nonprofit group that serves people infected with the virus, three legal groups alleged Thursday. The ACLU of Northern California, Lambda Legal and the AIDS Legal Services Alliance fired off an angry letter to California Department of Health Care Services director David Maxwell-Jolly demanding an explanation for what the groups termed ‘a gross affront’ to patient confidentiality. Norman Williams, a health department spokesman, said staff members and lawyers have reviewed the situation and do not see a problem. The records released to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation did not include the patients' HIV status or the names of their doctors, medications or insurance carriers, he said. ‘We provided very limited information to AHF about certain beneficiaries, and that was to be used for the purpose of contacting individuals to let them know they were eligible for these additional services,’ Williams said. ‘We believe our actions comply with the law.’ACLU staff attorney Elizabeth Gill said health officials have acknowledged turning over the names, addresses and telephone numbers of an estimated 5,000 HIV patients to the Los Angeles-based foundation during the past two years. Foundation president Michael Weinstein said his group sought the information to recruit clients for a statewide outreach, education and case management program for low-income, HIV-positive Californians the foundation was under contract with the state to run. Gill, however, said the disclosures were improper because California has specifically prohibited the release of patients' identifying information to third parties since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when public fear and confusion about how the disease was spread put people at risk of losing jobs and homes.”