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Epic, Health Systems Sue Health Gorilla Over Alleged Misuse of Carequality and TEFCA

Plaintiffs warn the alleged scheme threatens trust in nationwide interoperability.

Overview

  • Epic, OCHIN, Reid Health, Trinity Health and UMass Memorial Health filed the federal complaint on Jan. 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
  • The suit alleges a network of companies posed as treating providers to pull records through Carequality and TEFCA for non-treatment uses, including routing data to mass-tort marketing and law firms.
  • Health Gorilla, named as a central defendant and identified as a TEFCA-designated Qualified Health Information Network, is accused of failing to vet access and ignoring red flags.
  • Epic says nearly 300,000 Epic-user records were improperly accessed as plaintiffs cite irregular query spikes, missing clinical follow-up and insertion of junk data as signs of misuse.
  • Plaintiffs seek immediate injunctions, a bar on the defendants’ access to interoperability networks, and the return or destruction of records, with the case pending and no public response from defendants.