O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 33-21-23 (2019)

Confidentiality of medical information; claim of privileges by organizations

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) Any data or information pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, or health of any enrollee or applicant obtained from the person or from any provider by any health maintenance organization shall be held in confidence and shall not be disclosed to any person except: (1) To the extent that it may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter;

(2) Upon the express consent of the enrollee or applicant;

(3) Pursuant to statute or court order for the production of evidence;

(4) The discovery of evidence; or

(5) In the event of claim or litigation between the person and the health maintenance organization wherein such data or information is pertinent.

(b) A health maintenance organization shall be entitled to claim any statutory privileges against such disclosure which the provider who furnished the information to the health maintenance organization is entitled to claim.

History

Code 1933, § 56-3625, enacted by Ga. L. 1979, p. 1148, § 1; Ga. L. 2019, p. 386, § 3/SB 133. The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, substituted the present provisions of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: ‘‘Any data or information pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, or health of any enrollee or applicant obtained from the person or from any provider by any health maintenance organization shall be held in confi-

dence and shall not be disclosed to any person except to the extent that it may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter; or upon the express consent of the enrollee or applicant; or pursuant to statute or court order for the production of evidence or the discovery of evidence; or in the event of claim or litigation between the person and the health maintenance organization wherein such data or information is pertinent.’’

Annotations

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, substituted the present provisions of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: "Any data or information pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, or health of any enrollee or applicant obtained from the person or from any provider by any health maintenance organization shall be held in confidence and shall not be disclosed to any person except to the extent that it may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter; or upon the express consent of the enrollee or applicant; or pursuant to statute or court order for the production of evidence or the discovery of evidence; or in the event of claim or litigation between the person and the health maintenance organization wherein such data or information is pertinent."