A former Kaiser Permanente employee and her friend face felony charges after the employee provided the friend with medical records that showed his ex-girlfriend had a medical procedure, according to authorities and police records.
Sophia Martinez was a Kaiser employee this summer when she gave the medical record to Hussein Garcia, according to a search warrant and police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
Garcia, 25, of Denver is charged with solicitation and conspiracy to obtain medical records, according to Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office. He has been released on a $10,000 bond and is scheduled to be in court Thursday, she said.
A Kaiser spokeswoman declined to comment, citing a pending investigation.
Jackson said police are waiting for Martinez to turn herself in for investigation of theft of medical records, and Kimbrough said she had not been charged yet.
The woman whose records were allegedly compromised hired a Denver attorney to investigate the case, and he obtained information from the health care company. She then gave the information to police.
“Inappropriate access and disclosure of a member’s protected health information by a Kaiser Permanente employee is a strict violation of Kaiser Permanente policy,” regional claims manager Colin S. Crabb wrote to the alleged victim’s lawyer, Lawrence Rotenberg. “Ms. Martinez resigned her employment from Kaiser Permanente last August in lieu of termination.”
Rotenberg said Garcia used the information to harass his former girlfriend, who had since found a new boyfriend.
“He called up and said, ‘I know everything about you,’ “ Rotenberg said. “He wanted to embarrass her.”
Garcia and Martinez could not be reached for comment.
Arthur Kane: 303-954-1244 or akane@denverpost.com
