can a doctor request medical info from your doctor?

Say you have a friend who is a doctor, and they know who you doctor is. Can they request information about you from your doctor without your consent?

Nope. That's why when you want to have records sent from one doc to another, you have to sign consent forms. It even goes beyond that. My sis is a pediatric nephrologist at a cihldren's hospital. Our cousin's son was treated there for liver cancer. I asked if she'd ever peeked at his charts, and she said if she had, and had gotten caught, she would have been fired and possibly lost her license.

No way. That's really disrespectful. I don't know the legalities but I would definitely speak with a lawyer.

Eva Lou is correct about HIPPA having many disclosure exceptions and even mandates. The treatment category is actually "treatment, payment, or healthcare operations" - which is pretty broad.

See: worldprivacyforum.org/hipaa/HipaaGuidePart3.html

There are several points that might bear on this thread however:

1) Some state and/or local laws eliminate some HIPPA exceptions; and providers have broad discretion to say "NO" - excepting some law enforcement mandates.

2) If you had no medical relationship with a doctor/friend, an exception for "treatment" would not be possible without fraudulent misrepresentation (as Eva Lou points out). However even seemingly unrelated medical specialties could come together under treatment. For example you have a dermatologist/friend who prescribes medication A, and a GI who prescribes medication B. If a pharmacist or insurance review flags a potential adverse interaction, legal discussion and disclosure between both doctors could easily occur without your consent. This is just one example.