Mass. high court weighs privacy of medical records versus public access in malpractice tribunals

BOSTON — The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts heard lawyers’ arguments over whether medical records should be presumptively removed from the public docket in medical‑malpractice proceedings and whether an offer of proof that omitted provider names and standards of care could support tribunal review.

Attorney Chris Sopcich, representing the plaintiff in Kentisha DeSantis v. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Milton Inc., told the court medical records are confidential under federal and state law and that, given modern, voluminous electronic records, they “by themselves are good cause.” He said plaintiffs should not be forced “to be victimized twice” by having their full histories publicly accessible online in order to pursue claims.

The issue matters because courts balance the public’s common‑law and constitutional right of access to court records against individual privacy and statutory protections such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Sopcich argued that routine electronic medical files and copy‑and‑paste notes today make traditional public access…