Indiana Health System Dodges Patient Info Disclosure Suit

An Indiana health system was cleared of liability for an employee’s unauthorized disclosure of patients’ private health information because the patients didn’t prove the employee acted within the scope of her employment, the state’s top court said.

The Indiana Supreme Court also expressly recognized that an invasion-of-privacy tort claim can be based on the public disclosure of private facts, but said Heather McKenzie’s suit failed because Community Health Network Inc. negated the “publicity” element.

The suit is the “latest chapter in a long-running family feud” stemming from McKenzie’s failed marriage to Katrina Gray’s stepson, the court said.

According to the ...