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Australia: Medical booking app facing multi-million-dollar fines

By  |  August 8, 2019

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched legal action against the Perth-based HealthEngine in the Federal Court, accusing it of misleading and deceptive conduct.

In June last year, the ABC revealed HealthEngine was passing on users’ most sensitive health information to law firms seeking clients for personal injury claims.

The details of the deal were contained in secret internal Slater and Gordon documents that revealed HealthEngine was sending the firm a daily list of prospective clients at part of a pilot program in 2017.

The ACCC has also accused the company of passing the personal health information of approximately 135,000 patients to insurance brokers in exchange for payments.

“Patients were misled into thinking their information would stay with HealthEngine but, instead, their information was sold off to insurance brokers,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

Full Content: ABC

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