The federal Office for Civil Rights announced a second settlement Dec. 12 in its initiative to ensure hospitals are promptly providing patients with copies of their medical records without overcharging them.
Korunda Medical, a Naples, Fla.-based primary care and interventional pain management provider, agreed to pay $85,000 for violating the Right of Access rule. The office began investigating Korunda in March after receiving a complaint from a patient that the medical center failed to forward their health records in an electronic format to a third party.
After receiving the complaint, the office provided Korunda with technical assistance to correct the matter and closed the complaint. But Korunda still did not provide the requested records, which resulted in another complaint to the federal office.
Under the new HIPAA rule, healthcare providers must release medical records to patients within 30 days of their request and can only charge a reasonable, cost-based fee. The civil rights office announced its first settlement under the initiative in September with Bayfront Health St. Petersburg (Fla).
In addition to the financial settlement, Korunda will undergo a corrective action plan, which includes one year of monitoring by the civil rights office.