Medical Malpractice

There is a medical law...?

in Minnesota that states a doctor/ health care provider(s) may with hold from, and lie to a patient about any test result. They may also with hold dianosis or give false diagnosis. And at the same time give all test results, dianosis , and info to some other person (without the patients consent) or health care provider(s) so that they won't "spill the beans . This is in minnestoa. What law (statute) allows this? Is this law unique to Minnesota, or are there similar laws in other states? Olympics Junkie, please look up minnesota statute 144.335 under patients rights and read it to the end of the chapter, it isn't very long. I know that i can't email you but you can email me with your Thoughts/ opinion. They give a reason at the end for this flagrantly unconstitutional law but it doesn't hold water. What is the real reason for it ? Your thoughts / opinions. Good work nemisis. but you missed the giant loophole at the very end of your answer. The part where it says " if the health care provider reasonably feels that the info would affect the patient physicaly or mentally , or if the info would cause the patient to harm himself or another person then the provider may with hold the info from the patient. Don't you see, the doctor upon finding a terminal or catastrophic condition immediatly call the appropriate 3rd party (that being whoever you name in the clinic info sheet as the person they are supposed to call on said patients behalf due do a medical emergency. then the doctors talk it over with the 3rd party and decide if they should tell the patient. If together they decide not to inform the patient, then the patient dosn't have a snowball chance in hell of getting a diagnosis. But I was unaware of the repealing of the statute. Is it repealed? The repealing probably only affects the cases after 2007? RIGHT ? Am i still screwed?

Public Comments

1. You must be misunderstanding something, I hate to say. With all the new federal privacy laws, I cannot see that happening, although anything is possible these days! As far as giving you a false diagnosis, I can only see them opening themselves up for huge lawsuits and increases in malpractice insurance. I will have to read up on that!
2. I never heard of anything like that & as the 1st poster said, with HIPPA, it seems unlikely. I'm glad I live in Wisconsin, but I'm going to check into this--its scary..
3. Not what I found when I looked it up at all: http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/content.do?programid=536899193&id=-536882729&agency=BMP "The law is clear that the provider of medical services shall promptly respond to a patient's written request for records with complete and current information possessed by the provider, concerning any diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the patient. The records shall be in terms and language the patient can reasonably be expected to understand. The provider may bill a reasonable charge to the patients and may retain a copy of the materials furnished. Examples of the types of records which must be provided include: lab reports, x-rays, prescriptions, other assessment results, or the pertinent portions of the record relating to a condition specified by the patient. If the patient consents, the provider may furnish a written summary of the record. The provider may withhold from the record provided: written speculations about the patient's health condition, as long as the patient's informed consent is provided; information that the provider reasonably determines is detrimental to the physical or mental health of the patient, or is likely to cause the patient to inflict self harm, or harm to another. The latter information may be released to an appropriate third party or to another provider who may release the information to the patient." However, there must have been some problem because: 2007 Minnesota Statutes 144.335 [Repealed, 2007 c 147 art 10 s 16] https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=144.335
4. Try talking to the state medical board and a lawyer