Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, how are physician-patient privileges treated across jurisdictions?

• A. They are uniformly governed by federal common law.
• B. They are primarily governed by state law; FRE provides limited privileges.
• C. They do not exist as privileges in federal courts.
• D. They apply identically across all states with no exceptions.

Answer: (B)

Physician-patient privileges in federal courts come from state law rather than a nationwide federal rule. The Federal Rules of Evidence largely defer to state privilege law, so whether a physician-patient communication is privileged depends on the state’s rules where the case is heard; the FRE itself does not create a comprehensive federal physician-patient privilege. The federal system does recognize some limited privileges created by federal law in specific contexts (for example, the psychotherapist-patient privilege recognized under the FRE), but the general approach is that states govern physician-patient privileges. This explains why across jurisdictions you see different rules, with the federal rules offering only limited, area-specific federal privileges.