Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 12CC of chapter 112 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1992 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following paragraph:-

For purposes of this section, in the case of a psychotherapist the term "records" in this section shall mean, at the discretion of the psychotherapist, the patient's entire record maintained by such psychotherapist or a summary of the patient's record. If in the reasonable exercise of his professional judgement, the psychotherapist believes providing the entire record would adversely affect the patient's well-being, in such instances, the psychotherapist shall make a summary of the record available to the patient. If a patient requests the entire record, notwithstanding a determination that providing said record is deemed to adversely affect the patient's well-being, the psychotherapist shall make the entire record available to either the patient's attorney, with the patient's consent, or to such other psychotherapist as designated by the patient. For the purpose of this section the word "psychotherapist" shall mean any person defined as such by section twenty B of chapter two hundred and thirty-three or licensed pursuant to section eighty-four of chapter thirteen.