In Re Ernest Ortega v. Colorado Permanente Medical Group, P.c. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Co — Bender, J…

Summary

Chief Justice Bender dissented from the majority's conclusion that an HMO patient's accessibly stored electronic medical records were generally outside the physician-patient privilege and discoverable in a malpractice action. She would have held that physician access is not equivalent to acquisition, that any implied waiver was limited to information related to the conditions and damages placed in issue, and that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering blanket disclosure without following the privilege-log procedure. She also would have rejected the majority's interpretation of the HMO confidentiality exception because the records were not all pertinent to the lawsuit.