MEDICAL RECORDS Confidentiality breach settled

A fairness hearing on the class-action lawsuit agreement will be Dec. 16.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A tentative settlement has been reached in a 10-year-old case involving a breach of confidentiality through the release of medical records.
Visiting Judge Thomas Patrick Curran from Cuyahoga County filed a journal entry Friday saying the agreement has been reached in class-action lawsuit filed against the former Warren General Hospital.
Judge Curran, sitting by assignment from the Ohio Supreme Court in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, set a fairness hearing for the settlement for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 16 in the county courthouse.
Details of the agreement were not released. There are 501 former patients involved in the settlement.
A fairness hearing is held to determine the subclasses of the parties and how much money they should receive, court officials said.
For example, some parties may receive higher amounts if the released information was more embarrassing or damaging to them than others.
The case was filed in 1995 against WGH and an Austintown law firm by two former hospital clients, Cheryl Biddle and Gary Ball, who were represented by the law firm of Elliott, Heller, Maas, Moro & amp; Magill of Warren.
Since then, the Warren General Hospital has been purchased by Humility of Mary Health Partners to house St. Joseph Health Center.
Case history
According to the complaint filed by Biddle and Ball, the hospital hired the Austintown firm in 1993 to determine which of its patients qualified for federal Supplemental Security Income benefits that would cover hospital bills.
The hospital provided the firm with patient registration forms, which contained the patient's name, telephone number, age and admitting diagnosis.
The law firm contacted qualified patients, informed them of the benefits, and then encouraged them to contact the Social Security Administration or call the firm with questions.
Biddle discovered, however, that her information was among the files taken by a law firm secretary who reportedly gave them to a Youngstown television station.
The law firm settled with those involved in the suit in late 2004.
In 1999, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the hospital can be sued for breaching patient confidentiality for turning the records over to the law firm.
Attorneys for WGH and the law firm had argued that the confidentiality of patient information had not been violated.
The state's high court ruled, however, that if the hospital is going to provide such information to a third party, it needs the written consent of its patients.
yovich@vindy.com