GP wins legal battle against PSR over demand for 25 years of patient records
The long-running legal saga began in 2019.
A judge has stopped the PSR demanding up to 25 years’ worth of records from a GP whose Medicare claims for a one-year period are under review.
The PSR had argued that the years of records were necessary to understand “the context of the patient’s medical history”, but the Federal Court of Australia ruled last week that the request went beyond the PSR’s legal powers.
The saga began in 2019 when former PSR director Professor Julie Quinlivan started a review of the Brisbane GP’s claims between 1 May 2017 and 20 April 2018.
Dr Matthew Yoong, a solo GP, received a notice to produce the “complete clinical” records for 76 patients, many of whom he had been treating for 5-25 years, the Federal Court of Australia heard.
