Epic, a global health care software company, and several care providers are suing Health Gorilla, claiming that the health information network improperly accessed and monetized nearly 300,000 patient medical records. OCHIN, Reid Health, Trinity Health and UMass Memorial Health also are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The lawsuit alleges that Health Gorilla enabled Mammoth, RavillaMed and other companies to access both the patient records and an unknown number of records taken from organizations nationwide, including from the Veterans Administration and providers using other electronic health records. The defendants then rerouted these records to mass tort litigation marketing services, which allowed law firms to identify potential plaintiffs based on diagnoses.

“At stake are both the protection of medical records that contain some of a person's most sensitive data, such as genetic, mental wellbeing and reproductive information, and the ability of physicians to keep their promises to patients that their information will be kept private," the lawsuit said.

According to the filing, the defendants:

  • "Operate as organized syndicates to monetize patient records without patients' knowledge or consent."
  • "Request patient records for the purpose of treating patients but take patient records for other purposes, including to market them to lawyers looking for potential claimants … to join mass tort or class-action lawsuits."
  • "Obscure their true purpose through fictitious websites, shell entities and sham National Provider Identification numbers … to create an illusion of legitimate patient treatment activity."
  • Cover their tracks by inserting junk data into patient medical records "to give the false impression that they are treating patients, which risks patient safety and wastes valuable clinician time."

"These actors are putting the enormous positive patient outcomes achieved through interoperability at imminent risk," the lawsuit said. "When used appropriately, interoperability ensures that medical care is informed by a patient's medical history, allowing health care providers to improve patient outcomes."

The plaintiffs seek injunctive relief to immediately halt the alleged conduct, arguing that it threatens patient privacy and undermines trust in nationwide health care interoperability systems.

In another lawsuit, Pacific Health accused Epic of using its market dominance to block access to health records. The lawsuit underscores the ongoing challenges the company faces in sharing its health records with others and the potential risk to patient privacy and trust in health care interoperability systems.

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