Miami Herald - Friday, August 16, 2002
Monica Rhor, mrhor@herald.com

Lawyers for the agency were in a Broward County courtroom on Thursday to protest the manner in which the records were seized, saying it was unnecessarily disruptive and threatened patient confidentiality.

Broward Circuit Judge Elijah Williams ordered state officials to copy and return the records by Monday morning, and set another hearing for 11:30 a.m. Monday, said Sharon Kegerreis, lawyer for the Fort Lauderdale center. "The process used by the state violates the sacrosanct confidentiality, particularly where you have medical records of patients afflicted by AIDS," said Kegerreis. "There was no need to come in and seize records in the manner that they did."

The clinic was closed Wednesday after state investigators served a search warrant to obtain the records and carted the files away in a U-Haul truck. About 60 staff members and 100 patients were sent home around 9 a.m.

Mark Schlein, director of the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Division, said state investigators, who determined that a search warrant was needed to obtain the records, needed to "secure the premises" while the search warrant was served.

However, Schlein said his office understood the need for patient confidentiality.

"We share the goal of minimizing any disruption to medical services being rendered while we conduct a criminal investigation," said Schlein.

Although Schlein said the case involved a Medicaid fraud investigation, he would not comment on the specifics of the investigation. He did say that the Center One investigation came out of other, ongoing investigations.

"It's been going on for some time," said Schlein. "In a complex investigation of this type, you begin in one area and as evidence develops, it takes you into other areas."

Kegerreis said Center One had agreed to cooperate with the state investigation, as long as the state agreed to safeguard patient confidentiality and care. "There are competing interests between the need for the state to do an investigation and confidentiality concerns," she said.

Community Healthcare/Center One, at 2817 E. Oakland Park Blvd., receives about $1 million annually in federal grants to provide services to about 4,000 low-income HIV/AIDS patients. Services include HIV testing, medical care and Medicaid/Medicare enrollment.

Center One combined with Community Healthcare in 2001, after a proposed merger with a Miami-Dade AIDS agency fell through because the Fort Lauderdale agency had $350,000 in debt at the time.

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