November 6, 2014
In a first-of-its-kind decision in the state, the state, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that patients can bring negligence lawsuits against health care providers that violate federal privacy regulations.
It took the state’s highest court nearly two years to rule on the issue, which will allow a Vermont woman’s lawsuit against a Westport gynecologist’s office to go to trial. The decision could also have national implications, according to legal experts with knowledge of the Health Care Portability and Accountability Act and also those involved with data breach cases.
The Connecticut case of Emily Byrne vs. Avery Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology involved a patient who sued a health care clinic that released her medical records to a third party without her authorization. The plaintiff, Emily Byrne, claims that the Avery Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Westport released private information about her pregnancy to the father of the child Byrne delivered in 2005, against her instructions.
The center moved to block the lawsuit on the grounds that the language in HIPPA precludes individual liability claims. The center’s lawyer, James Rosenblum of Stamford, also argued that no negligence lawsuit could be brought because the administrative remedies had not been exhausted. The center won a decision in Superior Court, which led to an appeal to the Supreme Court by Byrne’s lawyers.
In its unanimous Nov. 4 decision authored by Justice Flemming Norcott Jr., the court determine that “neither HIPPA nor its implementing regulations were intended to preempt tort actions under state law arising out of the unauthorized release of the plaintiffs medical records.”
The ruling said such claims can be pursued in civil lawsuits if the plaintiffs can show the “generally accepted standard of care” under was not followed. In the ruling, which follows similar decisions in other states, including Missouri, West Virginia and North Carolina, the court found there is evidence that the standard of care was not followed in Byrne’s case. Specifically, the decision said, Byrne was never informed of the request for her records made by Andro Mendoza, her former boyfriend. And the records he was provided were beyond what he requested.
“Before this ruling, individuals could not file a lawsuit claiming violation of their privacy under the HIPPA regulations,” said Byrne’s lawyer, Bruce Elstein, of Goldman, Gruder & Woods. The lawsuit will now be placed on a trial docket in Bridgeport Superior Court, and the plaintiff will be permitted to pursue her claim that the medical office was negligent for releasing her records.
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