Iron Mountain Overcharges for Medical Records, Class Action Says

In a new Iron Mountain class action lawsuit, a New York woman says the company overcharges for copies of medical records.

Plaintiff Hend Ghobriel claims that Iron Mountain Inc. and Iron Mountain Information Management LLC have been overcharging individuals who request copies of medical records, in violation of New York law.

Ghobriel says section 18 of the New York Public Health Law puts a limit on how much a person can be charged for requested records, quoting it as saying “the reasonable charge for paper copies shall not exceed seventy-five cents per page.”

Iron Mountain has violated that provision by charging as much as $1.50 per page plus shipping, the plaintiff says.

Ghobriel also argues that by failing to disclose that fees over $0.75 per page were illegal, Iron Mountain is engaging in a deceptive practice that violates the New York General Business Law.

According to this class action lawsuit, Iron Mountain Information Management is a subsidiary of Iron Mountain Inc. that provides information management and data storage services.

Ghobriel says Iron Mountain also does business under the name of Cornerstone Records Management, the name of a Maryland-based record management company that Iron Mountain acquired in 2013.

Ghobriel’s own request for records from Iron Mountain came about as part of a separate personal injury claim. In February 2011, she reportedly retained law firm Jacoby & Meyers to represent her in that matter and authorized the firm to request medical records on her behalf.

Under that authorization, in January 2014 one of the firm’s vendors made a request to Iron Mountain for records of Ghobriel’s treatment at the Mid-Rockland Imaging Associates Division of Hudson Valley Radiology Associates.

Iron Mountain responded with six pages’ worth of hard-copy medical records and a bill for $1.50 per page plus a $1.12 charge for postage, Ghobriel claims.

She says that nowhere on the Iron Mountain invoice did it state that the amount charged was over the maximum allowed by New York law. Despite her dissatisfaction with the charge, Ghobriel says she may still have further need for copies of her medical records.

Ghobriel proposes to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons who paid for or incurred an obligation to pay for copies of patient information requested from a “health care provider” by a “qualified person” as those terms are defined in the New York Public Health Law, and were charged more than $0.75 per page for those records by either Cornerstone or Iron Mountain Information Management.

She seeks a damage award including statutory damages of $50 per wrongful act, restitution and disgorgement of profits, as well as reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and court costs.

The plaintiff is also seeking an injunction prohibiting Iron Mountain from charging fees in excess of what’s allowed under the Public Health Law.

Ghobriel is represented by attorneys Todd S. Garber, D. Greg Blankinship and John D. Sardesai-Grant of Finkelstein Blankinship Frei-Pearson & Garber LLP.

The Iron Mountain Excessive Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Hend Ghobriel v. Iron Mountain Inc., et al., Case No. 7:16-cv-06367, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.