eClinicalWorks Class Action: Scheme Renders Health Records Useless

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The representative of a deceased cancer patient’s estate claims electronic health records vendor eClinicalWorks has rendered millions of patients’ records worthless in a scheme to fraudulently qualify for a federal incentive program.

Plaintiff Kristina Tot is bringing this eClinicalWorks class action lawsuit on behalf of the estate of her late father Stjepan, who died of cancer.

She claims faults in eClinicalWorks’ cloud-based electronic health records system render those records unreliable to physicians and patients trying to use that information to make treatment decisions.

Before Stjepan died, Tot claims, his eClinicalWorks medical records “failed to accurately display his medical history on progress notes.” The lack of medical history prevented Stjepan and his providers from ascertaining when his cancer symptoms first appeared.

Tot says eClinicalWorks software periodically displays incorrect patient information, and it sometimes displays information for two different patients at the same time. Audit logs do not accurately record user actions, she claims. As a result, records may be altered or deleted, and the previous version of the record would become unavailable.

Tot’s claims come months after eClinicalWorks submitted to a $155 million settlement with the U.S Department of Justice.

The settlement resolved allegations that eClinicalWorks misrepresented the capabilities of its software so that it would appear to qualify for government reimbursements under the federal Electronic Health Records Incentive program.

The program, created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was designed to encourage healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records technology and to demonstrate its “meaningful use.” Healthcare providers could qualify for financial incentives for adopting certified EHR technology.

eClinicalWorks falsely obtained that certification for its own record system, according to Tot’s class action lawsuit. The company’s software did not meet the incentive program’s standards, Tot claims, so eClinicalWorks rigged that software to pass certification testing without actually meeting the requirements. The company also made false statements to the certifying authority, she says.

Tot now argues that the same shortcomings that prevented the software from qualifying for the incentive program also creates inaccuracies and falsehoods in patients’ medical records. The resulting records can’t be relied upon by patients or care providers.

This eClinicalWorks class action lawsuit raises claims for breach of fiduciary duty, inducing a breach of fiduciary duty, and gross negligence.

Tot proposes to represent a plaintiff Class that would include all persons in the U.S. whose physicians used eClinicalWorks to record and store their medical records at all times relevant. Since 850,000 healthcare providers use eClinicalWorks records, Tot projects that millions of patients could qualify as Class Members.

She is asking the court to certify her proposed Class, appoint her class representative and her attorneys as class counsel. She seeks an award of punitive damages, litigation expenses and attorneys’ fees, plus any other relief the court deems warranted.

Tot’s attorneys are Gordon Diefenbach of Diefenbach PLLC and Steven Armstrong of Law Offices of Steven E. Armstrong PLLC.

The eClinicalWorks Defective Electronic Health Records Class Action Lawsuit is Kristina Tot v. eClinicalWorks LLC, Case No. 1:17-cv-08938, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.