All Honolulu Medical Group records mailed or destroyed

Question: Whatever happened to the plan to release patient records from Honolulu Medical Group? The deadline for requesting a copy was July 11. My son, who is in Texas, requested his records last November and still hasn’t gotten them. Will he get a refund for the $42 he paid to get the records? Is there a delay in mailing out the records because of a backlog?

Answer: There are no Honolulu Medical Group records left to mail.

Every request for records was fulfilled — if the records were available, said James Wagner, attorney for the defunct Honolulu Medical Group.

Shortly after July 11, all remaining records were destroyed, he said. "They weren’t destroyed precisely on July 11 because (the storage/search vendor was) still fulfilling requests that came in prior to that date."

In your son’s case, we’re told he was informed that no records could be found.

The state Office of Consumer Protection, following on your son’s complaint, was told "HMG’s agents searched whatever records they had three times and nothing turned up," said spokeswoman Cathy Yasuda.

Even though your son never received his records, neither will he be getting a refund.

"We basically followed the destruction plan outlined by the (U.S.) Bankruptcy Code even though they (HMG) no longer were in bankruptcy and the (state) Department of Health approved doing it that way," Wagner said.

See www.staradvertiser.com/news/20100908_State_allowed_HMG_to_reduce_time_it_keeps_medical_records.html.

Under the approved plan, HMG had a year to give patients an opportunity to retrieve their records. The court also allowed a nonrefundable fee ($42 plus tax) to be charged for record searches, Yasuda said.

"The money basically goes to the people who did the search," Wagner said. HMG had about 80,000 records, either paper or electronic.

The Honolulu Medical Group announced its dissolution in July 2010. At that time, patients were told all unclaimed records would be destroyed after July 11, 2011.

Yasuda said it should be emphasized that the handling of the records was not subject to state or federal laws, because it was "protected under bankruptcy court proceedings."

"There’s not a whole lot we (could) do," she said.

Q: Every day I see numerous close calls with pedestrians crossing at the intersection of King and Isenberg streets. Can you clarify the law with regards to motorists giving way to people in a crosswalk? King Street is a wide road but I see cars turning from Isenberg onto King right in front of pedestrians or barely missing them. The few seconds it takes to allow a person to cross the street may well save a life.

A: Section 291C-72(a) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes says, "The driver of a vehicle shall stop and yield the right of way, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling, or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger."

Back in 2005, shortly after the law was changed to try to increase pedestrian safety, a police official explained that yielding to pedestrians at the halfway point was already in the statutes.

What changed was what motorists are required to do: They previously only had to "yield." Now they are required to stop (see archives.starbulletin.com/2005/09/25/news/kokualine.html).

More information about pedestrian safety — and the responsibilities of both motorists and pedestrians — can be found on the state Department of Transportation website: hawaii.gov/dot/highways/safe-communities/walkwisehawaii/WalkWiseHawaii.htm.

Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.