3 New York Hospitals Face Class-Action Suit Over Medical Record Fees

Mount Sinai Hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Group Co-op City, all based in New York City, have been named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit alleging the hospitals, along with Alpharetta, Ga.-based HealthPort Technologies — a company that provided document copying services to the hospitals — overcharged patients for access to medical records, according to a Law360 report.

The complaint was originally filed in New York state court and has now been removed to state federal court. The controversy in the case concerns a New York public health law that states the fees charged by healthcare providers in copying medical records cannot exceed the cost the healthcare provider incurred by providing the service. The law further states healthcare providers are prohibited from ever charging more than $0.75 per page for medical record requests, according to the report.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege the healthcare providers named as defendants in the class-action charged them $0.75 per page, which was $0.50 more than the providers' cost for locating and copying the records, according to the report.

The complaint read "Defendants have … deliberately engaged in a practice of fixing or charging standard or uniform fees … without regard for their actual costs incurred," according to the report.

At this time, it is unclear what contractual relationship existed between HealthPort and the three hospitals, and HealthPort recently denied all liability in the case. The three hospitals have not responded to the complaint, according to the report.

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