Substance abuse? Got into a physical fight with your partner? Drove drunk? Smoked weed? Tried cocaine? Got a prostitute overseas? Cheated? Had sex with a coworker or patient at work? All discoverable by attorneys, illegal leakage of information, private investigators, state medical boards, employers, PHP programs, and a whole other list of entities that I can’t think of.
So, what are you supposed to do? You should, of course, be the prophet and saint you were hired to be. Bottle it up inside and hope that when it does spill out, it only spills out on your own personal life. JK.
Can the other lawyer subpoena my medical records from a hostpital?
byu/boobiestothrow inlegaladvice
Confidentiality Rules In Healthcare
An attorney-client privilege means your lawyer an’t be forced to reveal what you disclosed to them in the course of legal proceedings.
The physician-patient confidentiality generally protects what you’ve shared with your doctor, as long as it doesn’t put you or someone else in harm.
In the legal sense, even if this information is compromised, for example, if it’s illegally leaked from your attorney or physician, it’s not admissible in court but don’t think for a second that it won’t surface publicly.
In 2025, there is no such thing as confidential data. If someone wanted to, they can prove you watched kiddy porn even if you used a virtual PC, with a VPN, through an unknown server, anonymously, using digital currency.
Sadly, the same is true if you divulged to your doctor that you went on a weekend drug bender because of your bipolar disorder. All a jury or a state medical board hearing is gonna remember is the drug bender, not the bipolar disorder.
What’s a Doctor to Do?
Of course, I can’t tell you what to do because that would mean that I would be giving you some advice that could be construed as having you break the law.
Even if you find that psychiatrist overseas or someone who, for whatever reason, doesn’t keep very good notes on her patients, when asked whether you have an overseas attorney, if you lie you committed perjury.
Medicine is a tough profession not just because of the mental and emotional demands, the administrative burden, the uncompensated medical-legal risk, but also because your personal character is always under the microscope. And the person looking through those lenses is usually on the less open-minded side – hence the microscope.
I think there is a lot that you can share with your doctor without sharing something that could get you into trouble. And you can definitely request that something you say not be included in your chart – those are all your rights. But it’s not your right to force what your doctor ends up doing. Obvy!
Don’t Forget Your Social Media
I shared with my readers that when I got pulled into court by the California State Medical board, the district attorney had looked through my entire website and even fished through the comment section – all 1.5 million words, to find the one sentence that she thought was incriminating enough to use against me in court.
Me? I had no fucking clue that she knew I had a website – I was writing it anonymously at the time. And because I didn’t know, I couldn’t admit into evidence the 1,000 other words I had written that clearly showed my stance on the topic.
This DA was unethical but she played by the rules. I got lucky, the judge ruled in my favor, and she had a few choice derogatory words for that DA.
Ever written a comment online? Posted something publicly? Nobody has to prove that you said those things – that’s not the way the legal system works. If it’s more likely than not, it’s going up against you.
Are You Low-Risk or High-Risk?
Are you an older white dude who looks like Clint Eastwood? You’re probably fine. Low-risk.
Are you a woman who is a caregiver, maybe divorced? History of major childhood trauma? You have a massive bullseye on your back.
Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern with a heavy accent? Bullseye.
I don’t know about being black but if precedence counts, darker skin is proportional to discrimination.
I don’t think state medical boards or PHP programs are evil. That’s not what we’re talking about. It’s that they are biased and go in assuming that if it quacks, it’s a duck. They are understaffed, adequately ignorant, not well-trained, devoid of insight into their own biases and tasked with protecting the public from us terrible, scrupulous doctors who are out to fuck our patients, snort cocaine off someone’s ass-crack, and overbill Medicare.
They couldn’t live with themselves if they let that one doctor slide who commits an atrocious act against a minor. But if they give out a few extra license suspension here and there, okay, that’s not the end of the world, likely not realizing what a career disaster that is for the doctor.
Verifying Your Identity
As you guys know, I have my own cash-based medical practice. My state medical board requires me to keep accurate records on my patients for at least 10 years, and longer is better.
When a patient comes to me they give me a name and there is no law that says that I have to verify their ID. The patient is within their rights to tell me to fuck off if I demand they show me an ID or obtain their SSN or DL.
Now, if I have to prescribe something and they go to a pharmacy, that pharmacy can ask them for DOB, SSN, phone number, etc.
6 replies on “What You Say To Your Psychiatrist Is Discoverable”
Dr Mo, As a therapist Ive had patients over the years who come for therapy and pay cash and use a forgettable name. Therapists dont ask for id unless we are billing insurance. I know many patients have work restrictions on seeking behavioral health care, so to get care they attend under an alias. Me, I have zero problem with this as a provider. Therapy should be untouchable unless it crosses into mandated reporting issues.
Thank you for sharing this important piece of information. I’m 100% with you on that.
I have a private practice and the board suspended my license when my neighbor lied as i was gardening inside my property: i am still going through this as we speak : i need to hire a psychiatrist to replace me and rebuild my practice as the owner and not the psychiatrist seeing the patients: how do i find a psychiatrist ?
Word of mouth is great and LinkedIn is also a solid option.
we as doctors in general have given up far too much of what we went into medicine for.. helping the patient and sharing their journey .. that means confidentiality. It is egregious how that has been invaded on and how we need “two records” one for them and …to uphold what we set out to do in the first place .
While I’m not a fan of how the healthcare and medical-legal system treats physician, I understand the need for checks and balances. Physicians have learned to adapt and that’s not always going to translate to better patient care. Defensive medicine is a great example of that. All that said, there is point at which our posturing is going to make us suffer. So there is a sweet spot and each of us has to discover it on our own. I realized that working in the mainstream medical system means that I have no autonomy, no control, and while I may do some good, I’m looking over my shoulder too much. For now, this alternative way of running my medical practice makes sense.