Continuing its enforcement priority of assisting patients with obtaining access to their health records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently settled its ninth case with a covered entity that it alleged failed to provide proper access of health records to a patient.
NY Spine Medicine, a medical practice providing neurological and pain management series to patients in New York and Florida, agreed to settle allegations of failing to provide a patient access to her medical records for $100,000 and a corrective action plan.
The OCR alleges that the patient made multiple requests for her medical records from NY Spine Medicine in 2019, but the patient did not receive the diagnostic films she specifically requested. She complained to the OCR which started an investigation. The OCR determined that “NY Spine’s failure to provide timely access to all of the requested medical records was a potential violation of the right of access standard. As a result of OCR’s investigation, the complainant received all of the requested medical records in October 2020.”
The OCR has made it very clear that providing patients with timely access to their health information is a high priority, so careful consideration of this priority is essential when responding to patients’ requests for their records.