My doctor falsified my medical records. Is there potential for a medical malpractice case here?
We would need to know a lot more in terms of the facts of your situation before we could tell you whether you might have a medical malpractice case. But your question raises an interesting -- and often overlooked -- point when it comes to taking legal action against a doctor: Not every form of wrongdoing (whether accidental or intentional) on the part of a doctor or other health care professional can be remedied by filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.
In most situations, a medical malpractice lawsuit is the appropriate remedy when a patient is harmed by the provision of medical care that is below the appropriate medical standard of care under the circumstances. So, most medical malpractice cases require the patient to have been harmed in the course of care provision within the doctor-patient relationship, either because of something the doctor did or failed to do within the treatment context, in other words.
Falsifying a patient’s medical records, engaging in unlawful billing or collection practices, withholding information from health insurance carriers, and any other potentially fraudulent physician conduct that takes place outside of the health care treatment setting is still actionable -- meaning you still have a right to seek a civil remedy for any resulting losses, financial or otherwise. But it might not always form the basis of a medical malpractice case.
Instead, the causes of action you bring against the doctor (the specific legal claims, to put it another way) might include fraud, intentional misrepresentation, negligence, breach of contract, and a whole host of other civil claims, depending on the specifics of the case. The point is that these causes of action don’t depend on the specific element of medical negligence, which is key to a medical malpractice case.
If you’ve been harmed by a doctor’s questionable practices, whether related to the provision of treatment or to a more indirect function like record-keeping or billing, your best first step might be to discuss the matter (and your legal options) with an experienced attorney.