Compelled Disclosures of Health Records : Updated Estimates

In both the popular media and scholarly literature, breaches of health privacy, confidentiality, and security are often associated with unlawful or unethical actions that result in disclosures of health information to individuals or entities with no right to access them. Although it is important to address wrongful access, disclosure, and use of health information, the focus on wrongful acts frequently overlooks the significant threat to health privacy posed by lawful disclosure of health information to individuals and entities with the economic or other leverage to require individuals to sign authorizations for the disclosure of their health information. We have termed this common practice "compelled disclosures" or "compelled authorizations." It includes instances in which individuals are required to sign an authorization as well as the times in which individuals are required to obtain and submit directly their own health records