HealthEngine made $2 million from selling patient information, court told
But judge rejects company's settlement with the ACCC, saying it was less than the profits it was making
The HealthEngine booking service made nearly $2 million for selling on patient information to insurance brokers, the Federal Court of Australia has been told.
A formal decision on whether the country’s largest medical booking platform is guilty of deceptive and misleading conduct is still to be handed down.
But from April 2014 to June 2018, the company allegedly provided the details of 135,000 patients — including names, phone numbers and dates of birth — to nine different health insurance brokers, generating some $1.8 million.
It also failed to publish over 70,000 negative patient reviews of GP practices and other healthcare providers as well as doctoring others to delete paragraphs containing criticism, according to the ACCC.
