In Re Ernest Ortega v. Colorado Permanente Medical Group, P.c. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado and David…

Summary

The court held that the physician-patient privilege did not protect the plaintiff's electronic medical records because the medical-malpractice claim triggered the statutory exception and the treating physician had access to the integrated record as part of providing care. It further held that the HMO confidentiality statute permitted disclosure of information pertinent to litigation and that the entire record in the defendants' custody was relevant to preparing a defense. The court therefore discharged the rule to show cause and allowed defendants to examine unredacted records from 1998 through the present. Chief Justice Bender, dissenting, would have limited disclosure to records actually acquired and relevant to the claims and would have required individualized privilege review.