The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires doctors and staff to keep patients’ medical records confidential, unless a patient allows those involved to disclose them for a given reason. Patients do need to give permission for doctors to share records with other health providers. However, there are a few instances when a doctor may be able to share personal medical information without a patient’s permission, such as the doctor and/or patient needing help (i.e. if the patient has been injured traumatically and cannot make medical decisions for themselves), the government requiring patient information for legal reasons, or if a patient brings a claim to court.