I am a registered nurse. The mother of my child once jumped on the back of a cop (I believe the police frown on that behavior) and was tazered. She was shipped off to the emergency room one floor down from where I was working. I soooooo wanted to look up her drug panel results as we were still in a custody dispute (I am the proud sole custodian of my boy and she is in county custody for possession and intent to sell heroin. I can't really blame her descent into drug use, after all, she couldn't have me...

).
My fear of getting caught easily won out over my curiosity. The next night, another nurse told me the results.
I could see the temptation of leaking someone's records, but the risks far outweigh any benefit. There is good reason for HIPAA.
As for signing a release, records are only released to other health professionals and insurance companies. If he released them to a news group, we would have the reports out there already.