In the 2016 legislative session, Representative Teo Zagar introduced H.554 on my behalf after I wrote to him explaining how costly it would be to obtain a copy of my health care records. At the time Teo and I corresponded (December 2015), a copy of my records would have cost $438, which is what’s allowed by statute ($5.00 flat fee or $.50 per page, whichever is higher). I hope the bill will get picked up this coming session and reintroduced in the House Health Care Committee.
There’s a strong argument that consumers should be able to obtain a copy of their own records for free. In the bill I drafted, I suggested that consumers be allowed one free copy of their records per year. Even if a personal copy of one’s records isn’t made available for free, the cost should be reduced from $.50 per page to a rate more comparable to the actual cost that it takes to produce the records.
The $.50 per page copy fee is substantially more than commercial printing costs which are around $.10 per page and while providing one free copy may seem like an administrative burden and an extra cost on providers, it would certainly benefit the public at large for consumers to have easier access to their own medical records. The legislature may want to emulate Vermont Public Records law by allowing for the first 30 minutes of labor to be free and to require that records be produced at actual cost.
Similar to public records law, any time there are cost barriers placed in front of consumers, these barriers make health care generally less transparent.