Among the competing ideas in the complicated debate over how best to secure sensitive medical records during a healthcare revolution in an uncertain digital age, one of the proffered solutions is decidedly NOT to store them in Stephan and Liza Dean’s house and garage.

Yet, there they are, or were—as many as 1 million confidential medical records mired in the middle of a Riverside Superior Court lawsuit between Kaiser Permanente and Sure File Filing Systems, the small Indio company owned by the Deans. The records include patient names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and treatment information.

Sure File is just one of thousands of independent contractors nationwide that health care institutions rely on to help manage the vast amounts of medical data being generated. 

The two sides don’t agree on all the details, but apparently Kaiser signed a contract with the Deans in 2008 to organize thousands of records obtained by Kaiser when it acquired the Moreno Valley Community Hospital. While Sure File moved paper records into storage, it responded to inquiries from Kaiser about specific patients. Dean said password protection and encryption were rarely used to safeguard patient privacy.

Sure File was awarded another Kaiser project in January 2010 to “deactivate” and store 345,000 records from its West Los Angeles Medical Center. But the Deans stopped work on it almost immediately for lack of a contract before finally inking a pack, resuming work and then quitting in June 2010 for internal business reasons. The contract was terminated and Kaiser picked up what it thought were all the records in July 2010.

The two sides continued to bicker until March 2011, when Kaiser paid the Deans $110,000 to resolve their differences as they parted “final” company.    

But the Deans said the deal only covered paper records and they wanted more money for the rest. They also complained to the state Department of Public Health that Kaiser was not properly safeguarding patient information. 

Kaiser sued the Deans in October, claiming the couple may have violated their contract by not returning all patient information two years ago, and demanded to inspect the couple’s computers. Kaiser spokesperson Diana Halper told the San Francisco Business Journal that the Deans were “falsely claiming continued possession” of medical files to pick up a few more dollars.   

Stephan Dean told the Los Angeles Times he destroyed Kaiser emails, and other electronic patient information he had retained, on New Year’s Eve and that it would cost Kaiser $100,000 to verify that.

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Vast Cache of Kaiser Patient Details Was Kept in Private Home (by Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times)

Kaiser Permanente Still Tangled in Legal and Regulatory Scuffle with Tiny Indio Vendor (by Chris Rauber, San Francisco Business Times)

Kaiser Permanente Stuck in Odd Struggle with Tiny Indio Vendor (by Chris Rauber, San Francisco Business Times)