Legal Basics
This section contains articles and other resources relating to basic legal principles. Look here for articles explaining legal concepts, work with attorneys, discussions of the legal duties of health professionals, etc. There may be overlap with other sections, so if you do not find the information you are looking for please browse the other sections or use the search box.
Does incorporating your practice shield ...
This question is one of the more frequently asked questions on professional email lists. The answer is, “it depends.” That is not as clear as many would prefer, but it is the right answer.
Have you received a letter from a licens...
If you receive a letter from a licensing body informing you that a complaint has been made against you, suppress the urge to panic.
Reporting Suspected Abuse: those reports...
July 22, 2008
Clinical Practice, Forensic Practice, Legal Basics, Miscellaneous, Practice Management
Clinical Practice, Forensic Practice, Legal Basics, Miscellaneous, Practice Management
This is a reminder: reports that clinicians make of suspected abuse are highly confidential. Under California law, reports of suspected child abuse and information contained in those reports may only be disclosed to persons or agencies who coordinate the investigation of these reports.
Should HIPAA matter to clinicians who ar...
If you aren’t a “covered entity” (the term HIPAA uses to identify healthcare providers under its authority) do you need to care what HIPAA says? In these situations is HIPAA irrelevant? The answer is both “yes” and “no.”
So You’ve Been Asked to Write a Declar...
The question of what to do when asked to author or sign a declaration on behalf of a patient is a stressful dilemma for most practitioners. This usually occurs when a patient is in the midst of litigation and the patient or the patient’s attorney believes that a statement from the practitioner would...
Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege for Pr...
On February 20th, 2008, the Court of Appeal of the state of California, Second Appellate District, published an opinion in the nature of the psychotherapist-patient privilege for convicted sex offenders undergoing voluntary psychotherapy.
Does Premature Termination Constitute Ab...
Most clinicians have encountered multiple situations where a patient attends a limited number of sessions and decides to end the treatment relationship, either by no-showing for successive appointments or by declaring that they wish to end the treatment relationship. This can present some difficulty...
What happens when confidential informati...
This is a particularly troublesome dilemma and one that most clinicians dread. We take great care to avoid such a situation, and in the event that a fax or letter gets to the wrong person most clinicians are unsure about whether the unintended recipient has any legal responsibilities to avoid further...
Those Confidentiality Disclaimers At The...
July 31, 2007
Clinical Practice, Forensic Practice, Legal Basics, Miscellaneous, Practice Management
Clinical Practice, Forensic Practice, Legal Basics, Miscellaneous, Practice Management
Huge numbers of clinicians have disclaimers at the end of email messages that say something like this:
“The information contained in this email is CONFIDENTIAL. If you have received this message in error or without the express direction of the original author, please notify the sender and delete this...
Supervision vs. Consultation: what you n...
The following article was authored by myself and A. Steven Frankel, Ph.D., J.D. It appeared in a slightly shorter format in the July/August 2007 issue of The California Psychologist, the newsletter of the California Psychological Association.
In this article we will discuss an oft-overlooked topic: understanding...
