Hospital sued over release of patient records to Cape company

A University of Missouri hospital faces a class-action lawsuit after releasing confidential medical records for hundreds of patients to a Cape Girardeau company it hired to solicit business.

The suit was filed earlier this year on behalf of approximately 800 patients with liver diseases, including hepatitis C. The complaint alleges that patient records were turned over by University Hospital's internal medicine chairman to Pharmacy I.V. Associates of Cape Girardeau and Dexter, which does business as home health-care provider Option Care.

According to the complaint, an Option Care nurse then called the patients in an effort to sell them costly antiviral drugs and keep them from leaving the hospital network to follow their provider, Paul King, a gastroenterologist who left the university in late 2004 to open a private practice in Columbia.

"The university didn't really have a [treatment] plan," said King, who is not a party in the lawsuit. "Rather than develop one, they attempted to just pass the responsibility on to a third party. It was an attempt to see the patients ... stay in the university system."

Such a release of patient medical records would likely violate federal privacy laws under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. Before the lawsuit was filed in June, university officials said they were investigating whether such a violation occurred. A University Hospital spokeswoman was not able to provide an immediate update on that inquiry Wednesday.

Kevin Dellsperger, the internal medicine chairman who is named as a defendant along with the hospital, Option Care and University of Missouri curators, declined comment.

But Joy Doll, the Cape Girardeau nurse who contacted King's patients using a list provided by the hospital, said the lawsuit is without merit.

"The accusations were all false," Doll said. "The university was only interested in the better care of patients."

Doll, who is also a defendant, said she didn't solicit any services. "This was about patient safety."

Lawyers for the university and Option Care have asked a Boone County Circuit Court judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the patients suffered no monetary damage and that the doctor-patient privilege "does not create an independent duty for defendants to not release confidential medical information to third parties."

A hearing on that motion is set for Oct. 24.

Staff writer Mark Bliss contributed to this report.