FC: Are your pet's medical records private? DogFancy mag reports...

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"National Zoo cites animal 'privacy rights,' refuses to release info"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03490.html

Sheesh. Can't this be handled by simple, straightforward contracts with 
your vet? Fine print: We promise not to tell anyone that Fluffy died of 
malnutrition...

-Declan

---

Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 22:25:26 -0400
From: "J.D. Abolins" <jda-ir () njcc com>
Subject: Dog Fancy magazine: privacy of pet medical records
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Cc: law () dogfancy com

As I was standing at the checkout line at my local PetSmart store, I 
glanced at the magazine rack. The cover of the May 2002 issue of Dog Fancy 
magazine had this teaser: "Are your dog's medical records private?" Once I 
got off the floor with fits of laughter, I threw in a copy of the magazine 
in the shopping basket. I had to read the article, especially after the 
animal privacy rights thread on Politech.

Although the magazine has a Web site at http://www.dogfancy.com, there is 
no copy of the article (page 15 in the print version) online. Here is an 
overview of the article "Who's looking at your dog's medical records" by 
George M. Dennis, J.D..

It turned out to be actually an informative article about the laws 
concerning disclosure of veterinary records rather than a scare story about 
poor Fido becoming a victim of identity theft or mass marketers. The 
article starts off with sound admonition for people not to assume that 
their dog's veterinary records have the same level of confidentiality as 
doctors' records for human patients.

Dennis discusses the 1999 revision of the American Veterinary Medical 
Association's Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics to declare vet 
records as private and confidential. While there is the AVMA ethics 
statement, few states have laws establishing veterinarian-client privilege. 
Some states' veterinary boards require confidentiality of records. If a 
state does not have the laws or veterinary board requirements, the client 
has no legal recourse for disclosure.

But even in states that recognize some vet confidentiality, the privilege 
is not absolute. There are conditions under which the confidentiality may 
be lost. E.g.; if the client sue the vet, files a fee dispute claim, or 
claim that somebody injured the animal (thus, requiring pre-incident health 
info concerning the animal). A court order or a subpoena can require 
disclosure. Some states may require disclosure under certain conditions 
such as contagious livestock diseases.

The law doesn't address who controls the privilege if the dog is switched 
among owners. Dennis recommends getting consent for access to vet records 
in writing from the previous owner when acquiring a dog.

As I look at the issue, a major difference between veterinary-client 
privilege and physician-patient privilege is that the vet's client is the 
human but the patient is the animal. Privacy with vet records entails both 
information about the animal and some info about human client. The human 
would have some privacy concerns about the info concerning the human but 
the data usually is limited to name, address, and payment history. There 
may be a consumer privacy issue here. But a claim of privacy specifically 
for the animal is pushing into hairy territory. <no pun intended> Could 
that be a beginning of class action suits for neutering/spaying as an 
intimate form of privacy intrusion? <g>

J.D. Abolins

PS. In one of my emails that was posted on Politech, I mentioned a 
satirical page where a dog looks at privacy. This page is now up on the Web 
at http://www.weirdbytes.com/mdog/sec-priv.html




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