Legal Advisor

Reporting Patients to the RMV

Your patient is unfit to drive because of vision problems, a seizure, or an arthritic condition impairing his or her ability to safely drive a car. As a physician, what are your duties to your patient, the public, yourself. This challenging situation involves complex legal issues and competing duties. Massachusetts is a self-reporting state, meaning that drivers are responsible for reporting any condition that may affect their ability to drive. But patients are not always willing to self report, and, for a physician, disclosing a patient's medical condition raises serious confidentiality issues. What sort of liability, if any, arises for a physician who does or does not report a patient's condition to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV), and what can be done to minimize that risk without breaching patient confidentiality?

Next: Patient Confidentiality