KPC Medical Management Patient Records May Be Destroyed
Medical records for 250,000 former patients of now-defunct KPC Medical Management, formerly Southern California's largest for-profit medical group, may be destroyed by the company that has been storing them because it is no longer receiving money to keep the records, the Los Angeles Times reports. Iron Mountain, a Boston-based company, has been storing the records since August 2001, when the state ordered California's health plans to pay to keep the records available for one year to patients undergoing treatment (Bernstein, Los Angeles Times, 2/2). Under the agreement, after one year Iron Mountain could destroy all remaining records (California Healthline, 8/3/01). Joy Higa, deputy director of the Department of Managed Health Care, said the agency does not have jurisdiction over the records now that they are stored by Iron Mountain. She added that legislation proposed by Gov. Gray Davis (D) would tighten rules for medical records when medical groups go out of business or doctors leave managed care. The Assembly and Senate passed similar bills last year but were unable to reconcile their different versions (Los Angeles Times, 2/2).
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