State Supreme Court Rules for Collectors in Medical Privacy Case

For the moment, debt collectors have a friend in Mississippi – home of the bottlenose dolphin (state water mammal) and “Ziggy” the whale fossil (state fossil.)

In a recent court case, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that a collection agency can not be held liable for disclosing private medical information in an attempt to collect on medical debt.

The issue came up when a collection agency filed a judgment against a debtor on behalf of a medical clinic.  The debtor, assumedly unhappy with the whole “being sued” thing, countersued, claiming both the clinic and the collection agency invaded her privacy, violated medical privilege and inflicted emotional stress by listing her treatment and codes for various services provided by the clinic.

Associate Justice Jess Dickinson, however, disagreed with the debtor.  In his decision, he wrote that the information disclosed in the public record was technically not part of medical privilege because she did not communicate this information to her physician.  "The Legislature has not found it wise or appropriate to bring the names of medical procedures within the purview of the statute, and we shall not do it for them here," Dickinson wrote.

In effect, Mississippi is defining doctor/patient privilege as communication from the patient to the doctor, and not vice versa.  With this as the case, it means that collection agencies won’t be held liable for alleged violations of privacy, since a violation, according to law, has not occurred.