Tomball physician sues company for keeping medical files

A Tomball-area physician is suing over claims an electronic records management company refuses to return his patients’ medical files.

Jason Kelly DeMattia, M.D., who has an office in Tomball, filed a lawsuit on Jan. 30 in Harris County District Court against Electronic Medical Resources, citing breach of contract, fraud, wrongful appropriation of medical records and conversion.

DeMattia says on May 28, 2010, he hired Electronic Medical Resources to manage electronically his patients’ medical and billing records.

According to the brief, DeMattia discovered a bug in Electronic Medical’s software that caused the records to be noncompliant with state and federal laws.

The suit alleges Electronic Medical failed to fix the defect and then refused to return the records to DeMattia in a usable format until he paid the account in full.  

DeMattia is seeking injunctive relief, as well as damages, attorney’s fees and court costs. He is being represented in the case by Tomball attorney Kevin M. Jones.

Harris County District Court Case No. 2012-05748.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Harris County Courthouse. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.