Federal Complaint Charges 'L.A. Times' Disclosed Patient Info

By: The Associated Press A group of physicians and community leaders allege in a federal complaint that the Los Angeles Times and the county health department violated the law by revealing confidential patient information in stories about alleged lapses in care at a hospital.

The complaint says the county violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, by providing the newspaper with confidential information about patients at the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in South Los Angeles.

The nonprofit Friends of King Drew filed the complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights in San Francisco.

Ira Pollock, regional manager for the Office of Civil Rights, said he could not comment on the status of the complaint.

The Times' five-part series, published this month, profiled dozens of King/Drew patients and their family members who alleged mistreatment and lapses in patient care at the facility. The articles also highlighted alleged financial mismanagement, lack of hospital oversight and shoddy personnel practices.

The newspaper's outside counsel, Kelli Sager, said Thursday that the Times stands by its reporting and that neither the complaint nor an earlier demand for a retraction had any merit.

"The articles that the Times published were thoroughly researched, including looking at court records, medical records, personal interviews with patients and their families," she said.

County spokesman John Wallace said the newspaper collected all confidential patient information on its own through public records.

"I can state categorically that at least anybody working for the department in an official capacity did not violate HIPAA," he said. "A lot of the patients that were identified (by the newspaper) were identified through court documents and settlement documents."

Friends of King Drew plans to file a defamation lawsuit if the paper doesn't print a retraction within 21 days, said David Martin, an attorney representing the nonprofit.

"The Times picks out a half-dozen or so specific instances out of a hospital that treats thousands - if not tens of thousands - of patients," he said. "That doesn't justify the broad-brush defamation against the entire hospital, the entire medical staff and all the departments."