Medical records for a spouse’s back surgery is relevant to discover whether the employee misused leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, a federal court in Connecticut says, ordering that the records be disclosed under the privacy regulations pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a health care provider, as a “covered entity,” may disclose protected health information in response to a subpoena or discovery request only if the health provider receives adequate assurances from the party seeking the information that reasonable efforts were made to (1) notify the person who is the subject of the protected health information about the request or (2) seek a qualified protected order, the court says.

The court says the central issue in the instant case was whether the employer wrongfully terminated an employee “for misusing statutory family and medical leave by taking a vacation to Mexico with friends, while purportedly caring for her husband on a ‘continuous’ basis after back surgery….” Since the spouse’s medical condition was the grounds for the FMLA leave, and the employer’s contention that the doctor’s recommendation for the Mexican vacation was prepared after the employee was critical to its defense, the court “concurs that under these circumstances, where plaintiff's FMLA leave was based on her husband's medical condition, that medical condition is directly in issue….These records bear on, or may reasonably lead to evidence that may bear on, the basis for plaintiff's family and medical leave and whether her vacation to Mexico was a misuse of that leave.” The spouse’s medical condition during the relevant time frame is key in determining whether plaintiff was wrongfully terminated, the court concludes, granting the employer a qualified protected order for the spouse’s medical records. Tavares v. Lawrence & Memorial Hospital