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Make sure you’re charging permissible fees for copying medical records
Physicians and medical record companies may charge for providing copies of a patient’s medical records. Effective 30 days after Sept. 14, 2005, those fees increased (760 IAC 1-71-3).
A physician or a medical record company can charge no more than the following amounts:
- A labor fee of no more than $20 (includes first 10 pages)
- $0.50 per page (pages 11 to 50)
- $0.25 per page (pages 51 and higher)
- Actual costs of mailing the medical record
- A $10 rush fee if requested to provide within two working days, and records are actually produced in that time frame
- Actual cost of X-rays and mammograms
- A $20 fee for certifying a patient’s medical record
Medicaid considers the provision of medical records to be part of its covered services, so providers probably cannot charge Medicaid patients for copies of records.
A physician may also elect to waive or reduce the fee if the records request is from a provider to whom a patient was referred or from whom a patient is seeking a second opinion, or if the patient is requesting records for his or her own use and the charges will cause an undue financial hardship on the patient.
Further questions may be directed to the ISMA Legal Department at (800) 257-4762 or (317) 261-2060.
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