A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a Suffolk doctor for allegedly disclosing a patient’s health information to the patient’s employer.

Richard Alan Kaye, 62, of Suffolk was indicted by a federal grand jury for the wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

If convicted, Kaye faces a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

According to the indictment, Kaye is licensed to practice osteopathic medicine in Virginia and was the medical director of the Psychiatric Care Center at Sentara Obici Hospital.

According to the indictment, he provided in-patient mental health treatment to a patient from Aug. 20 to Sept. 4, 2007, and in his discharge summary indicated that the patient was not considered a danger to others.

On three occasions in February 2008, however, Kaye allegedly disclosed the patient’s individually identifiable health information to an agent of the patient’s employer. Kaye allegedly made the unauthorized disclosure under the false pretenses that the patient was a serious and imminent threat to the safety of the public, when in fact he knew that the patient was not such a threat.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Alan M. Salsbury is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A woman who answered the phone Tuesday at a number listed for Kaye said he no longer lived there.