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Court Orders and Subpoenas








  
  
    

  
      



Court Order
A HIPAA-covered health care provider or health plan may share your protected health information if it has a court order. This includes the order of an administrative tribunal. However, the provider or plan may only disclose the information specifically described in the order.
Subpoena
A subpoena issued by someone other than a judge, such as a court clerk or an attorney in a case, is different from a court order.
A HIPAA-covered provider or plan may disclose information to a party issuing a subpoena only if the notification requirements of the Privacy Rule are met. Before responding to the subpoena, the provider or plan should receive evidence that there were reasonable efforts to:
Notify the person who is the subject of the information about the request, so the person has a chance to object to the disclosure, or
	Seek a qualified protective order for the information from the court.See 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e) and OCR's Frequently Asked Questions.

                    
  


Content created by Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Content last reviewed November 2, 2020Back to top
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