Commissioner of Mental Health & Addiction Services v. Freedom of Information Commission

Summary

The court held that a police report documenting a patient’s death at a state mental health facility was not protected by the psychiatrist-patient privilege because it was prepared by police officers conducting a postmortem law-enforcement investigation rather than by persons participating in the patient’s diagnosis or treatment. The report was therefore subject to disclosure under FOIA, but patient names, dates of birth, and home phone numbers had to be redacted because the requester had expressly excluded identifying information. The court also held that HIPAA did not bar disclosure because FOIA required production of the report. Justice Keller, dissenting, would have treated the report as privileged and prohibited disclosure, while Chief Justice Robinson, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have required additional redaction of the patient’s psychiatric diagnosis.