Krounda Medical fined $85K for failing to give patient access to EHR data
The federal government has levied an $85,000 fine against Krounda Medical, saying the organization didn’t fulfill a patient’s request to forward medical records in electronic format to a third party.
The federal government has levied an $85,000 fine against Krounda Medical, saying the organization didn’t fulfill a patient’s request to forward medical records in electronic format to a third party.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services took the action against Krounda Medical, which has offices in Naples and Bonita Springs in Florida and offers primary care and interventional pain management services.
Earlier this year, the OCR launched an initiative focusing on the rights of patients to access their medical records promptly, without being overcharged and in the readily producible format of their choice.
Since that time, the agency sanctioned one provider organization under the new program, and now it has fined and settled with a second organization.
“Not only did Korunda fail to timely provide the records to the third party, but Korunda also failed to provide them in the requested electronic format and charged more than the reasonably cost-based fees allowed under HIPAA,” OCR noted in its settlement.
The Office for Civil Rights gave technical assistance on how to correct these matters and closed the complaint.
Korunda then continued to fail to provide requested records, which triggered another complaint to the agency. As a result of OCR’s second intervention, the requested records were provided to patients for free and in the requested format, and Korunda agreed to a corrective action plan for one year and paid a settlement of $85,000.
“We hope our shift to the imposition of corrective actions and settlements under our Right of Access Initiative will finally wake up healthcare providers to their obligations under the law,” says Roger Severino, director of the OCR.
Krounda Medical declined to provide additional information.
The corrective action plan is available here.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services took the action against Krounda Medical, which has offices in Naples and Bonita Springs in Florida and offers primary care and interventional pain management services.
Earlier this year, the OCR launched an initiative focusing on the rights of patients to access their medical records promptly, without being overcharged and in the readily producible format of their choice.
Since that time, the agency sanctioned one provider organization under the new program, and now it has fined and settled with a second organization.
“Not only did Korunda fail to timely provide the records to the third party, but Korunda also failed to provide them in the requested electronic format and charged more than the reasonably cost-based fees allowed under HIPAA,” OCR noted in its settlement.
The Office for Civil Rights gave technical assistance on how to correct these matters and closed the complaint.
Korunda then continued to fail to provide requested records, which triggered another complaint to the agency. As a result of OCR’s second intervention, the requested records were provided to patients for free and in the requested format, and Korunda agreed to a corrective action plan for one year and paid a settlement of $85,000.
“We hope our shift to the imposition of corrective actions and settlements under our Right of Access Initiative will finally wake up healthcare providers to their obligations under the law,” says Roger Severino, director of the OCR.
Krounda Medical declined to provide additional information.
The corrective action plan is available here.
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