I issued a supboena dt for records, but hospital's legal dept. is giving push back due to HIPAA. They want a letter citing a HIPAA exception, but I figured a court order would work just as well. Thanks!

michelle.putman@nuecesco.com

The Federal Department of Health & Human Services has an excellent information section on HIPAA. The FAQ regarding disclosures for law enforcement purposes is at HHS HIPAA website Your grand jury subpoena duces tecum should be enough.

A Grand Jury subpoena is a specified exception in HIPPA. My hospital's lawyer argued with me for a little while, but he had some time to read and figured it out after spending a couple of Friday mornings sitting on the bench outside the Grand Jury room while under subpoena.

Depending on your reason for issuing the subpoena, see the following exceptions for law-enforcement officials:
http://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-p...forcement-officials/
Your given situation should be cited in the exceptions that are covered by Title 45 → Subtitle A → Subchapter C → Part 164 → Subpart E → §164.512
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/te....1.164_1512&rgn=div8 that you can print off and provide to the custodian of records at the hospital as well as their legal counsel or department.

It has been a while since I had a contested HIPPA situation. It was a motion to suppress. Texas is handicapped ( I assume this to still be the case) in that it is a clerk that issues a regular subpoena not a judge. Thus the magistrate is missing.
I am a county attorney and my DA is good enough to issue a grand jury subpoena for me everytime and that has worked every time since. I could, I think, issue a grand jury subpoena but the DA adds weight to the subpoena I think.
I have heard, as suggested above, that you subpoena the Hospital Administrator (at the top) to bring the papers in person to the court and that gets their attention.
John Hutchison, Hansford County Attorney

If you haven't already done so please take a look at case law on this issue you can find in my most recent version of my DWI Case Law Update on pages 111 & 112.