Optum Medical Care, a multispecialty physician group that serves patients in New Jersey and Southern Connecticut, has agreed to pay $160,000 to resolve claims that it did not provide prompt access to medical records.
According to a Dec. 15 news release from HHS, six complaints were filed in 2021 with the Office for Civil Rights against Optum Medical Care, alleging a failure to provide requested medical records to adult patients and parents of minor patients.
The OCR launched an investigation into the incident in February 2022, which revealed that patients received their records between 84 and 231 days after the requests, exceeding the HIPAA Right of Access requirement of a maximum 30-day turnaround.
The OCR found that Optum Medical Care's delayed provision of medical records potentially violated HIPAA regulations.
To settle these allegations, Optum Medical Care agreed to pay $160,000 and to implement a plan that requires workforce training, reporting records requests to the OCR and being monitored by the OCR for a year.