Over 100.00 dollars for med. records

[purplefocus]

5.00 for the second page and then 1.00 for every page after that. This is what they wanted to charge me to get a copy of my medical record. It would have been over 100.00. Is this normal? Is there another way? I told her to forget it because it made me angry. I really do want a copy. My PCP that I had been going to changed over in his practice to V. A., so obviously I couldn't follow him. He refered me to another doctor, which I ask the lady if they charged the doctor for copies and she said that there is no charge for the doctors, so why is there for me, when is about me? I need ya's input here.

Paige

[MightyMouse]

I think they are only allowed to charge you a reasonable cost per page--to cover their expenses. You need to contact whatever agency oversees physicians in your state to find out what the regulations allow. It seems outrageous to pay 1.00 per page when you can get them copied at any copy center for between 5 and 10 cents per page.

nina

[MightyMouse]

Oh, the other thought is to get the entire set sent to another doctor--and then get the copies through them.

[Jaime]

I had a similar problem trying to get my records for my disability application. It was going to cost me over $40. What I ended up doing is talking to my doc about my financial situation and she ended up just giving them to me free. I am sure she had a lot more availability to do this though because she owns her own practice. You may want to try that or Nina had a really good suggestion with getting it sent to another doc. That is ridiculous to charge that amount. Good luck

Jaime

[sally]

Depending on the physicians office, if you have them sent to another doctor you shouldn't be required to pay anything but you should know that your new physician also will not give you a copy of the medical records that are from the first doctor, they will probably tell you that you have to get a copy directly from the first physicians office. I would speak with the office manager about the cost of your records and see if they can give you some kind of break since there will be so many. Tell them that you just don't have this kind of money for copies and that they are your records, you'll be happy to pay a copy fee but that they should not be making a profit from the copying since you've already paid the physician for his services. The recording of history & physicals are considered part of the services and copies do not run 1.oo a page. Good luck

[Michelle Sawicki]

I had a woman at a hospital's Medical Records Department tell me to put the request in writing and to state that I needed the records for follow-up care. She told me if I worded it that way they wouldn't charge me. I worded it that way and they didn't charge me. I can't say this will work for everyone, but it might be worth a try.

Michelle

[ethansmom]

I just went through this myself, after receiving my records I also got a huge bill for way more than it was supposed to cost ($10 is what they had initially told me, but then they tripled that since my chart was so large).

I would recommend contacting the medical board in your state, and they can tell you what the maximum allowed amount is that they can charge...and also check to see, some states have laws that state you are entitled to your records even if you DON'T pay for them- although the doctor CAN charge a fee, they just can't withhold the records.

Good luck!!

[purplefocus]

Thanks everyone for the good advice. I am gonna call in the morning and see what I can find out. Just an added little note: I haven't heard anything else at all about my disability(SSDI) that I filed for back in March. The last thing was the psych consult I had the first part of July.

Paige