By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A class-action lawsuit alleges a Georgia company has been illegally overcharging Arkansas medical patients who request copies of their medical records.
Russellville lawyer Jimmy Streett filed the lawsuit in Pope County Circuit Court on behalf of Russellville resident Theresa Holbrook and “all other Arkansans similarly situated.”
The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that HealthPort, a company in Alpharetta, Ga., that maintains records for health care providers, has charged Holbrook and other Arkansans an illegal fee identified as a “sales tax” when they request copies of their medical records. It seeks reimbursement for all Arkansans who have paid such a fee.
HealthPort did not immediately return a call seeking comment today.
The lawsuit cites an opinion by Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel stating that Arkansas law permits entities that maintain medical records to recoup their costs for printing and providing copies of the records, but it does not permit them to charge a sales tax for the service.
Attached to the complaint as an exhibit is a bill Holbrook received from HealthPort after she requested her medical records from the Milliard Henry Clinic in Russellville. The clinic has a contract with HealthPort to maintain its records.
The bill includes a “basic fee,” a retrieval fee, a copying fee, a fee for shipping and handling and a “sales tax” of $1.71.
Streett said today that the so-called sales tax HealthPort charges is often small, but when a patient has a large file the amount can be significant, and even small fees add up to “a lot of money in the aggregate.”
Charging a sales tax for providing medical records makes no sense, Streett said.
“It’s people asking their own medical providers for their own medical information,” he said. “They’re not buying a good or service. They’re asking for something that should be theirs.”
Asked if the Arkansas attorney general’s opinion is applicable since HealthPort is not in Arkansas, Streett said HealthPort’s location should make no difference because when patients in Arkansas request their medical information, they request it from the health care providers that treated them.
“They’re asking for it from their local hospital or their local clinic or their local doctor. It’s just that their local doctor is outsourcing what would otherwise be their service to somebody that happens to be out of state,” he said.
October 15th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
As the largest provider of release-of-information services, the process of medical record request fulfillment, for hospitals and large physician practices, HealthPort Technologies follows strict federal and state guidelines regarding security, compliance and fees associated with patient medical record requests. In light of the recent article published in your newspaper regarding a lawsuit alleging that HealthPort has overcharged Arkansas patients for medical record requests, we would like to take this opportunity to outline our position.
HealthPort, in all 50 states, charges patients state-based fees to obtain their medical records from a healthcare facility. HealthPort also assesses patients (including those in Arkansas) a state sales tax for medical record requests where obligated to do so by state tax authorities. We do so at the explicit instruction of the State of Arkansas, and then remit such tax back to them on or before the 20th of each month on an Arkansas Excise Tax Return (ET-1 Form). Taxes are not discretionary. We are simply complying with the laws of the State of Arkansas as we have been instructed to do.
Sincerely,
HealthPort Technologies