I’ve mentioned this case before on this blog, but now new details have emerged in this case. Tim McGlone reports:
A psychiatrist faces trial in federal court on charges of illegally disclosing medical information of a Virginia state trooper who had been in his care after being held hostage and raped over three nights.
Prosecutors said this could be the first prosecution nationwide of a physician for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, which went into effect in 2003. The act prohibits disclosure of health records unless the patient gives consent.
Jury selection and testimony began Tuesday in U.S. District Court, where Dr. Richard Alan Kaye, the former medical director of psychiatry at Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk, faces three counts of wrongfully disclosing an individual’s health information.
Kaye was working at Obici in 2007 when the female trooper came to him for treatment. Kaye diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the attack in her home several months earlier.
But the trooper wasn’t happy with the way Kaye was treating her and left after 16 days. She filed a complaint with the hospital and, according to federal prosecutors, he lost his job as a result. The Virginian-Pilot does not disclose the identity of rape victims.
At the time, Kaye reported that the trooper left his care in stable condition and he did not consider her to be a danger to herself or others, according to the indictment.
The trooper sought treatment elsewhere, and during a 48-hour period in early 2008 she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in Petersburg, where her new counselors found her to be overly frantic, a prosecutor said. She was released in her own care after an evaluation.
Prosecutors allege that in a moment of vindictiveness, Kaye reported to the trooper’s supervisors that she had been involuntarily committed and was a danger to herself or others.
“Dr. Kaye seized the opportunity to retaliate against her,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury told the jury.
Kaye denied the charges and is expected to testify that he had a genuine concern about the safety of the trooper and those around her when he called her supervisors.
Read more on The Virginian-Pilot.
Although the case sounded intriguing, it was over quickly and Dr. Kaye was acquitted without ever having to present a defense to the jury. The court acquitted Dr. Kaye from the bench based on insufficient evidence presented by the prosecution to sustain a conviction.