VERONA, Wis. (WKOW) — Epic Systems and a coalition of health care providers have filed a federal lawsuit against Health Gorilla, Mammoth, RavillaMed, and other entities for allegedly exploiting patient records.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the Central District of California, claims these companies improperly accessed and monetized nearly 300,000 patient records from Epic community members, as well as an unknown number from nationwide organizations.
“At stake are both the protection of medical records that contain some of a person’s most sensitive data, such as genetic, mental wellbeing, and reproductive information, and the ability of physicians to keep their promises to patients that their information will be kept private,” Epic said in a statement.
Epic and its partners, including OCHIN, Reid Health, Trinity Health, and UMass Memorial Health, said they want to halt activities that compromise patient privacy and health care integrity.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of using fictitious websites, shell entities, and sham National Provider Identification numbers to create a facade of legitimate patient treatment. These tactics allegedly allowed them to market patient data to law firms for class action lawsuits. The suit warns that, “if not stopped, they will continue to inappropriately market the patient data they have already taken and will take more.”
Epic, a leading EHR software developer based in Verona, emphasized the importance of interoperability in health care, which is now at risk due to these alleged breaches.
“When used appropriately, interoperability ensures that medical care is informed by a patient’s medical history, allowing health care providers to improve patient outcomes,” the filing explains.
The lawsuit seeks immediate injunctive relief to prevent further misuse of patient data and to uphold the integrity of health care interoperability.
27 News reached out to Health Gorilla for comment and we are waiting to hear back.