A class-action lawsuit claims health care providers and data companies overcharged Mainers for their own digital medical records.<\/p>\n
MAINE, USA \u2014 You might assume you already own the rights to your medical records, but getting them isn’t always simple.<\/p>\n
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against four Maine health care providers and two data management companies over how they reportedly handle medical records requests.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit names Northern Light Health, Spectrum Healthcare Partners, St. Joseph Hospital, and Penobscot Community Health Center. It also includes Sharecare and Ciox Health, the third-party companies these providers use to manage records.<\/p>\n
Rachel Okun, a personal injury attorney in Maine, said this is a problem she runs into all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do this every single day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Okun said she can\u2019t build her legal cases without access to medical records, and getting those records often turns into a full-time job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually a nightmare,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a full-time staff person to do this for me because it\u2019s impossible for me to do that by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the delays and costs come from the providers outsourcing the job to third-party data companies. That\u2019s where the trouble starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Okun\u2019s firm has spent countless hours going back and forth with these companies, which she claims often overcharge for the paperwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to pay it, and if you don\u2019t, they won\u2019t give it to you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Under Maine law, providers can charge $5 upfront and 45 cents per page for printed records. But when it comes to digital records, the law only says fees must be “reasonable” and not exceed $150.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, they\u2019re all sent digitally,\u201d Okun said. \u201cNothing is sent in paper anymore. So why are they still charging per page?\u201d<\/p>\n
She said companies often calculate what it would cost to print the records, charge that amount for a digital copy, then add more fees for sending them electronically. Sometimes, a single request is split into separate bundles for each provider, each carrying its own fee.<\/p>\n
“They\u2019re doing it specifically to get that money. There\u2019s no reason that needs to happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Okun said she\u2019s been charged over $300 for a single request, which is well above the legal cap. While she\u2019s not part of the class-action lawsuit, Okun said she has dealt with Sharecare and Ciox and other companies with similar practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think these companies need to be held accountable, or the law needs to change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s written to lawmakers about the issue but doesn\u2019t have the time to pursue her own legal action. Still, she said she\u2019s glad someone is stepping up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A class-action lawsuit claims health care providers and data companies overcharged Mainers for their own digital medical records.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-308960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}