Cho Sueng-Hui and HIPAA

Mary Johnson wonders if HIPAA prevented Cho from getting much needed help:

Generally speaking, a health-care provider cannot talk to another health-care provider about a mutual patient without a signed release. Everything is harder, from simple consults to getting lab results to records transfer.

I expect it’s why those court records on Cho Sueng-Hui never got to anyone anywhere who might have been able to prevent what happened from happening.