We specified in writing that we wanted the records in an electronic format. Our office recently requested a copy of the electronic medical record of treatment provided to a client’s deceased father at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania. In spite of the HITECH regulations, at least one hospital, and probably others as well, still charges excessive rates for copying electronic medical records to a CD. Pursuant to the HITECH Act, the cost of such labor should be small and uniform, much unlike the multi-tiered rates charged for paper copies of the medical record. To click a mouse a few times and copy computer files to a compact disc requires minimal supplies and labor at best. The flat rate is substantially lower than the per page rates charged for producing a paper record. Instead, many hospitals now charge a flat, “per-page” rate for copying the electronic medical record to a CD. Consistent with the HITECH regulations which establish cost-based limits on fees for producing medical records, many large health care providers no longer charge the multi-tiered, “per-page” rates for producing electronic medical records. The transition to production of the medical record in an electronic format is creating significant cost savings for clients. Some facilities are now capable of producing hundreds if not thousands of pages of medical records on a single compact disc. In reaction to the HITECH Act, many hospitals and health systems have transformed their procedures for responding to requests for medical records from individuals and their attorneys. Unlike the traditional fees for producing paper copies of medical records, the regulations provide that the fees charged by a health care provider for producing the electronic medical record must not exceed the cost of supplies and labor necessary to copy the record. Pursuant to federal regulations implementing the HITECH Act, an individual is entitled to obtain a copy of any portion of their medical record created and stored in an electronic medical record system. Like the HIPAA Act before it, the HITECH Act addresses the privacy and security of individual health care information, but with an additional focus on the increasing transition to the use of electronic medical records. In 2009, Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With many medical malpractice cases involving devastating injuries and lengthy hospital admissions, the total cost of obtaining medical records in a single case is often thousands of dollars. The cost is eventually deducted from any recovery made on the client’s behalf. Our office pays the fees to obtain medical records on behalf of our clients. The total bill for even a single health care provider or hospital admission adds up fast and regularly amounts to hundreds of dollars. In Pennsylvania, health care providers typically charge $1.39 per page for paper copies of the first 20 pages of a medical record, $1.03 for pages 21-60, and $.34 for every page thereafter.
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