OOA Submits Amendment For Draft Medical Records Legislation

OOA Legal Counsel Eric Jones participated in an August 24 interested party meeting with State Rep. John Carney (D- Dublin) about a bill he is introducing to address notification of patients when the physician patient relationship is being terminated.

The OOA has submitted draft language to require an institutional employer, for example, to include the contact information of the physician leaving the entity if it is reasonably available to the entity.

“ We believe this language is important to address situations where institutional employers have been terminating physician employment and refusing to give patients information about a physician's new practice location,” said OOA Executive Director Jon F. Wills.

He cited recent terminations in Columbus, where patients have been looking for former employed physicians for more than a year because they wanted to follow them to their new location. The hospital-owned practice has declined to provide patients with this information. Further discussions are anticipated with no action on the bill until after the November elections.