Defendant BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER, INC. (BIDMC) paid $81,000.00 for attorneys’ fees, costs, and emotional distress damages, when suit was required just to get the patients’ complete medical records.
Patient of the BIDMC system, who suspected medical malpractice and was still undergoing follow up care at other health care system, requested his records from the Defendant BIDMC, so his potential claim could be investigated and necessary follow up surgeries could be performed. But the Defendant failed to timely produce the requested records, and their for-profit partner/records provider MRO, only provided invoices for excessive amounts (and even misspelling the name of the patient) forcing the patient/consumer to file suit.
After the chapter 93A unfair business practices claim was placed in suit records were finally provided but not before causing months of delay and thousands of dollars in costs and fees. Faced with the seminal Appeals Court decisions unequivocally categorizing such behavior as improper and illegal, and a court order to proceed with discovery via Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of the Defendant BIDMC, Defendant settled the unfair and deceptive practices claims, paying for all the damages incurred, including the patient’s pain and suffering and legal costs and fees.