Suchergebnisse

Confidentiality of personal health information is an important value which is protected by The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and other laws. However, the right to confidentiality is not recognized as absolute in the doctrine of law, legislation and legal cases. When there is the restriction of confidentiality of personal health information, it is necessary to emphasize the principle of necessity to protect a legitimate target which is necessary in a democratic society. It is important to notice that every restriction must be provided at the level of a piece of legislation. In the paper there is analyzed and evaluated the cases of the disclosure of personal health information to third parties, identified violations and made recommendations what legislative measures should be implemented to ensure the patient's right to private life. In the paper there has set the following objectives: to analyze the current situation in Lithuania what there is the regulation of the patient's right to privacy; to present the practice of different countries about patient's right to privacy; to carry out a theoretical analysis by comparing the various scientific researches on the personal health privacy; to determine what is the restrictions for the principle of medical confidentiality; to identify privacy problems while disclosing personal health information; to reveal when information is disclosed in accordance or compliance with the principle of proportionality. In the paper there are formulated two hypotheses. H1 – in the case of Lithuania, disclosing personal health information to insurance companies without the consent of the patient there is violated the patient's right to privacy. H2 – in the case of Lithuania, disclosing information about the student's health to training institutions (schools) there is violated the student's right to privacy. After all researches and analysis both hypotheses are irrefutable. To achieve the purpose of the paper and test hypotheses there is used the following research methods: systematic analysis – investigating the relationship between law and the ethical, moral and policy guidelines; comparative – juxtaposing scientific opinions and experiences of different countries; law (legislation) analysis – introducing with the legal environment, presenting limitation of the scope of medical confidentiality; legal case analysis – explaining the law, giving examples of violating the law; summative – structuring the material, giving insights of the author. There is lots of laws which somehow is connected with right to privacy and disclosure of personal health information. There is some main in this area. The European Convention on Human Rights tries to find balance between respecting the public interest and fundamental rights of the individual. The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine provides that everyone has the right to respect for private life in relation to information about his or her health. Lithuanian legislator was one of the first in the Europe who regulated the patient's rights by consolidating one legal act – the Law on the Rights of Patients and Compensation of the Damage where is established that all information about the patient being in health care institution, his health status, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, as well as any other personal information about the patient, should be kept confidential. In Lithuanian law there are described cases when the principle of medical confidentiality may be limited and information about a person's health status may be disclosed without the patient's consent: if disclosure is needed to health care provider for medical purposes; if minor is under 16 years old, health information is disclosed to his parents (but there can be exceptions); if it is needed to contact a relative of an injured; to eliminate or reduce a significant risk of serious bodily harm to another person or the public; for legal representatives; if a court or other public authorities requires to disclose health information; if health care institution gives information about patient's health to its insurance company (author doesn't agree with last regulation). It is not always clear when disclosure is lawful and when unlawful. It also depends on the country and its value system. European Court of Human Rights in a case related to the \"necessity\" or \"restrictive\" terms often applies the margin of appreciation doctrine. It should be noted that in some countries, patient's privacy issues are regulated more strictly, and in some other countries, patient's privacy issues are regulated more softly. The patient's private life is violated not only when information about the health status is disclosed illegally in violation of laws and regulations, but also if the legislature ultra vires passes laws that are contrary to the Constitutions and international agreements. In the paper there is presented proposal to change the Law on the Rights of Patients and Compensation of the Damage and prevent the health care institutions to disclose personal health information to their insurance companies without the consent of the patient. The main argument to support this proposal is the lack of legitimate target (national security; public safety; economic well-being of the country; prevention of disorder or crime; protection of health or morals; protection of the rights and freedoms of others) for this kind of regulation. One more proposal is to change the form of the Child Health Certificate which is approved by the Minister of Health. The main argument to support this proposal is the violation of the principle of proportionality and the excess information of the content. It is not necessary to name the exact disease because teachers are not competent to evaluate this information. It would be enough to write conclusion what child can or cannot do, and recommendations for teacher what first aid measures should be made on the basis of the child's illness (not disclosing exact disease).