Charging for copying patient records

by: CHARLES FIEGL Aug 6, 2009

Most states will allow you to charge patients for making copies of their patient records. This recently came to light during a discussion on the Part B News listserv.

However, the laws regulating copy processing fees vary from state to state. The Law Offices of Thomas J. Lamb, P.A. in Wilmington, N.C., posted a website listing the state laws for what providers can charge patients or a patient's representative. Here are a few I found interesting:

Georgia -- No more than $22.78 for administrative costs (I'm not sure how they arrived at $22.78?) can be charged.
Illinois -- You get a better deal - $22.28 for processing requests for copies; and then 84 cents for pages 1-25, 56 cents for pages 26-50 and 28 cents for pages 50 and up.
Kansas -- There's a $17.50 fee for labor; and 58 cents per page for the first 250 pages and 41 cents per page for additional pages.

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CHARLES FIEGL

Aug 10, 2009 1:39 PM

Thank you, Cindy. The information in the blog post above appears to be from 2006 (likely before the the rates were raised that July).

Here's the link to the HIPAA regs regarding access to patient records.

Cindy Shields

Aug 10, 2009 12:38 PM

http://www.magmutual.com/risk/FAQ-answer3a.html
Actually, Georgia allows up to $24.86 for search, retrieval, & other direct administrative costs PLUS up to $9.32 certification fee per record PLUS copying fees of $0.93 per page for pages 1-20, $0.80 for pages 21-100, $0.63 for pages over 100 PLUS actual postage cost. HOWEVER, per HIPAA, you cannot charge the patient or the patient's personal representative (does not include patient's lawyer in a lawsuit) the "search, retrieval, administrative" fee. These amounts are looked at each year and revised in July, but the amounts have not been raised since July 2006.

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