Court: IU medical records remain closed

A Monroe County circuit court has sided with IU in a case declaring the University must provide health care centers with records of treatments employees have received for workplace injuries. However, much of the specific medical information the University fought to keep private may remain sealed. \n"The court agrees with us that most of what is contained constitute medical records," said IU attorney Sharon Groeger. "All we are to provide is the amounts paid to Bloomington Hospital. This is the information that we already have given." \nGroeger said this case dates back two years ago when First Health Care sued the University under the Public Records Act of Indiana in order to have IU release to them workers compensation information, including diagnosis, treatment and prognosis data for IU employees. \nIU fought the suit contesting this information was protected by law as the University said medical records were exempted from the public records provision and is also protected to remain private by state and federal statues, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. \nAs opposed to private companies that may make most records private, being a public institution, IU is held to different standards and most records are required to be public. However, Groeger said the University felt that this did not apply to medical records of its employees. \n"You should never have to worry about having your medical records to be viewed by the public," Groeger said. "We think no differently for our employees. Both federal and state laws have made it clear you can't disclose medical records." \nGroeger said the University was happy with the ruling, as she said as long as the medical information is made private they do not have a problem with releasing how much was paid for treatment to First Health Care. \n"We did this to protect the privacy rights of our \nemployees," she said.