While looking for information on another breach, PogoWasRight stumbled over this blog post by McShane & Brady law firm in Kansas City:
McShane & Brady filed a lawsuit against the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) for a breach of private medical information in which a doctor took a photograph of a patient’s genitals on her personal cell phone and texted the photo to medical students.
The case was filed in the Wyandotte County District Court and assigned to Judge Timothy Dupree. KUMC moved for the case to be dismissed claiming that it did not have a duty to keep patient information confidential. On March 29, 2023, Judge Timothy Dupree dismissed the case finding that the KUMC did not have a duty to keep patient information private. The decision of Judge Dupree was appealed to the Kansas Court of Appeals.
On July 5, 2024, the Kansas Court of Appeal affirmed the District Court’s ruling stating:
“We agree with the district court that Kansas does not recognize a common-law duty for a medical entity to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients that would give rise to a private cause of action for the alleged breach of that duty.”
“The Court of Appeals thrown medical privacy out the window, “said Maureen Brady.
McShane & Brady is filing a Petition for Review with the Kansas Supreme Court and is seeking justice for all patients who have been victims of the wrongful disclosure of medical information.
Fox4Kc conducted an interview with Maureen Brady to discuss the case. KU Medical Center is expected to comment today. Click here to view the story.
So this is a bit shocking. It’s one thing for HIPAA to have no private cause of action, but for there to be no private cause of action under state law, well, does that leave Kansas residents with any redress if their medical privacy has been violated? What law is left that protects them? From reading the opinion, it sounds like there is none. And although Ms Brady claims the appellate court has “thrown medical privacy out of the window,” it sounds like medical privacy was never in any window in Kansas.
It will be interesting to see what the state supreme court does.