Don’t get us started. We think this is a complete intrusion on your privacy. But the Industrial Commission routinely authorizes it. Why a woman needs to give her gynecological records to an adjuster when she has a torn rotator cuff is beyond our understanding. What makes this worse? There is nothing – absolutely nothing – that prevents the adjuster from distributing copies of these records to that woman’s male coworkers. I’m not sure the Industrial Commission thinks this through. For instance, we’ve gotten the Industrial Commission to side with us when adjusters and employers try to get copies of an injured workers’ record from a marriage counselor. The likelihood of unnecessary embarrassment far outweighs the chance that someone told their pastor that they were so upset with their spouse leaving them that they were going to risk going to prison by faking an on-the-job accident. It just doesn’t happen.
Now, if you’ve had two prior surgeries on your shoulder we agree that those records are relevant if you’ve got a new shoulder claim. But not if you have a knee claim. We make every effort to limit this horrible intrusion. If you’re concerned about your privacy please call us. Let us intervene to limit what gets turned over to the insurance company.
