Texas AG sues over parental access to child med­ical records

Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Epic Systems Corp. for its allegedly unlawful monopolization of the electronic health records industry and for engaging in deceptive practices that restrict parental access to their minor children’s medical records.

Epic’s database software houses more than 325 million patient records, representing 90% of all U.S. citizens.

According to the lawsuit, the corporation uses a wide range of exclusionary tactics to prevent potential competition from its partners, customers, and even its own employees. Epic also interferes with hospitals’ ability to use its own patient data as part of its scheme to block software competitors, the lawsuit alleges.

As a result, Paxton says Texas patients experience diminished quality of health care due to their preferred physicians receiving incomplete or out-of-date patient health records, and that these allegedly anticompetitive practices further harm Texas hospitals and patients by raising costs and blocking i...