Would like to see a robust discussion:

Wow. I can read this to mean what it is intended to be - the evidence collecting portion of our exam is not medical and the evidence should go to law enforcement. That's fair. The concern I have is that it uses the term "forensic medical exam" in the context that it is ALL forensic and is ignoring the medical portion of our services. This limits our history being entered into court as the medical exception to hearsay, and more worrisome, may discourage victims of sexual assault from getting the medical care they need if we are viewed as only collecting evidence. We know that our exams are more than that, but someone reading this wouldn't.

The link provided to back up the perception that the exam is only evidence refers to a section of an OVW document that defines the exam for that document, which is not a full definition for other contexts. At first glance, it looks like an easy solution. We can talk about the evidence without violating HIPAA, but it's not that easy when we are seeing the patient as a whole, medical services combined with evidence collection. I am not collecting the history of the event solely to benefit law enforcement, which would make it an exception, but also as a medical assessment, so it makes sharing the information gray instead of black and white. Our consent form includes discussing the exam with other disciplines, but even that doesn't feel like full protection from HIPAA violations and I would like to hear other opinions.