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From: Robert Swotinsky MD
Password: orange
Date: 03 Mar 2008
Time: 11:19:55 -0800
Remote Name: 68.184.42.162
The better question is, Who gets access to the lab results? Payment is not the determining factor. If it were, then employers who pay for their employees' health insurance would have unfettered access to their employees' medical records.
In federally regulated (e.g., US DOT) drug testing, the results can and must be released to the employer without regard to written consent from the employee. In non-regulated workplace drug testing, the authority to release results w/o consent is unclear. In at least one recent court decision, the drug testing entity (a hospital taking care of an injured worker, while also doing a post accident drug test) was charged w/a lapse in confidentiality for releasing a patient's drug test result to a third party w/o specific consent.
In non-workplace testing, e.g., your sister, the results are likely presumed to be releasable to the patient and to others only if the patient authorizes the release.