Hospital patients' private records allegedly sold
to Miami-Dade lawyer

Ambulance chasing just took a reckless turn --  at the intersection of healthcare and the law.

A Miami man was charged Thursday with buying confidential patient records from a Jackson Memorial Hospital employee over the past two years, and selling them to a lawyer suspected of soliciting the patients to file personal-injury claims.

Ruben E. Rodriguez allegedly paid JMH ultrasound technician Rebecca Garcia $1,000 a month for the hospital records of hundreds of patients treated for slip-and-fall accidents, car-crash injuries, gunshot wounds and stabbings, federal authorities said.

Rodriguez then brokered the patients' names, addresses, telephone numbers and medical diagnoses to the lawyer, according to an indictment. The lawyer, not identified in court papers, used the information "to improperly solicit JMH patients with hopes of representing them in future legal proceedings.''

Later, the lawyer paid Rodriguez a percentage of the legal settlements won from thepatients' personal-injury claims, authorities said.