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HIPAA bars release of hospital burial records, Neb. judge rules

www.firstamendmentcenter.org

An Adams County district judge has ruled that federal medical-privacy laws prohibit a former state psychiatric hospital from making public the names of people buried in the institution’s cemetery 50 to 100 years ago.

The Adams County Historical Society filed a lawsuit last summer asking the Hastings Regional Center to open records revealing the identities of 957 people buried in the hospital cemetery. Burials occurred from 1888 to 1959, but records date only to 1909. Small gravestones are distinguished only by patient numbers.

Thomas Burke, a San Francisco attorney and Hastings native who represents the historical society, said he planned to appeal District Judge Terri Harder’s ruling, filed Feb. 14.

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