Consumer Law: Health Care Providers-Medical Records Search-Search Fee When No Records Found

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Plaintiff appealed from the dismissal of his suit challenging defendant’s charging of a search fee for patient medical records searches when no responsive records were found. The district court agreed with defendant that statutory language permitted health care providers to change a “basic fee” for a records search even if the search was unsuccessful.

Where it would be absurd for the legislature to condition providers’ entitlement to a fee based on the happenstance of finding records, the court affirmed the district court’s judgment.

Stras, J., dissenting: “ If a single fee covers both actions, then the second question is whether CIOX may charge a customer when it searches but does not retrieve anything.  I respectfully dissent because, in my view, the statute sets a single fee that requires the completion of both actions.”

Judgment is affirmed.

Graham v. CIOX Health LLC (MLW No. 74689/Case No. 18-3467 & 18-3486 – 11 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Kelly, J.) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, Sippel, J. (Robert Schultz, of Chesterfield, Ronald J. Eisenberg, of Chesterfield, Matthew L. Dameron, of Kansas City, William Charles Kenney, of Kansas City, M. Blake Heath of Kansas City, for appellant) (Jonathan Barton Potts, of Saint Louis, Jena M. Valdetero of Chicago, IL, for appellee)