Cost of Medical Records

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
Post Reply
User avatar
Topic Author
peregrine
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:07 am

Cost of Medical Records

Post by peregrine »

My MIL was recently hospitalized in Philadelphia where she was attending a conference. We have asked the hospital in Philadelphia for a copy of her medical record while she was there so we can coordinate it with future care. The hospital wants $165.68 for a copy of the record. This is a quote for a hard copy. This is the first time in our experience that a health care provider would charge for medical records. The amount seems outrageous. Is there a way around this? Should we request an electronic copy instead? Would that be cheaper? Is it likely the hospital would have an electronic record?
User avatar
TX_TURTLE
Posts: 198
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:37 pm
Location: Texas

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by TX_TURTLE »

If your doctor requests the medical records most likely there will be no charge. If you request them often there is a fee.
dickenjb
Posts: 2941
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 12:11 pm
Location: Philadelphia PA

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by dickenjb »

Why don't you ask the hospital if they can provide electronic records? A board full of internet strangers can't tell you what your hospital can or can't do.

I personally do not find $165 "outrageous".
123
Posts: 10387
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:55 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by 123 »

I would agree that $165 is probably not really outrageous considering all the "funny money" charges hospitals seems to be able to cook up. I would think that because she was treated there for a situation/incident and is now under the care of her regular doctor and won't likely be returning there the hospital will stick her with some type of charge.

I would pay the $165 and be done with it. It may well be a bargain. If you contact the hospital to protest/discuss the charge there's always a chance they'll notice an unrelated billing oversight or error that could cost her much more. I think it's often better to just go with the flow when the charges are not beyond all reason.
The closest helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
cannondale
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 9:45 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by cannondale »

First I've heard of a $165 charge for medical record. Don't they just copy the paper? Doesn't that take like 3 minutes? But in healthcare world, you don't pay cost. You pay cost x shenanigans.
texasdoc
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:10 am

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by texasdoc »

go to : http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/se ... rds/559368

you will find this fee table:
Accordingly, the Secretary provides notice that, effective January 1, 2014, the following fees may be charged by a health care facility or health care provider for production of records in response to subpoena or request:

Not to Exceed

Amount charged per page for pages 1 – 20……………………… $ 1.44
Amount charged per page for pages 21 – 60…………………….. $ 1.06
Amount charged per page for pages 61 – end …………………… .35
Amount charged per page for microfilm copies…………………. $ 2.12
So if her records is 100+ pages, I can see you getting that hefty bill. Hospitalization and ER records contain a lot of "junk" documentation ( the HIPAA forms she signed , nursing notes documenting that they crossed all the t's and dotted the i's , long notes filled by MDs to provide support for proper coding etc) .

Ask her doctor what results he/she really needs. Usually all you need are copies of XRays and Lab results,the discharge summary and any operative reports.

Also, as another poster suggested, when requested by another physician, hospitals usually fax the records for free.
And once your doctor gets a copy, keep one for yourself.
User avatar
kramer
Posts: 1952
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:28 am
Location: World Traveler

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by kramer »

> The amount seems outrageous

It is. But if you ask for the billing record, I am sure they will provide that for free ;-)

I think I paid Kaiser 15 cents a page back in 2007 and also had to wait awhile and then go in there in person to collect them.

Now that I proactively manage my own health care, I keep all my own important medical records. On my last physical in the USA, I was shocked that I wasn't offered a copy of my blood panel workup. They just phoned and said it looked OK. I was almost dumbfounded and had to go through some process to get them to send it to me.

I recently got an extensive blood workup here in the Philippines and I was comparing the results to my last USA blood workup. I could not imagine not having my own records of these things. The days when I just trusted a doctor anywhere are long behind me.
SGM
Posts: 3341
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:46 am

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by SGM »

You might want to ask for the hospital discharge summary. If you have certain issues maybe a copy of an xray report, mri or some specific study, specialist consult or lab reports would be additional. You could ask for the admission history and physical. There are prescribed limits per page that can be charged for records. Despite the high costs of hospital care a lot of hospitals have financial difficulties. They most likely will charge up to the limits of the law for records. The records department often seem to be swamped with requests. The complete chart is likely to be large and unnecessary for most purposes.
dolphinsaremammals
Posts: 2094
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2014 4:18 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

I have never been charged a fee for a copy of medical records, except once when there was a $5 fee for a CD of imaging.

As others have noted, I make it a practice to get and scan in copies of all my test printed results. Then they are right at hand if someone needs them at a later time, plus I can see historically what has been going on and can ask questions about stuff that hasn't been mentioned to me. I also keep CDs of imaging.
User avatar
oncorhynchus
Posts: 196
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 2:30 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by oncorhynchus »

No, that doesn't seem out of line for a whole inpatient chart.

Good news is, unless you feel the need to go over every document with a fine tooth comb, you can cut down on the cost by initially requesting only the following:
-- Admission history and physical
-- Operative Report (if surgery was done)
-- Discharge Summary including medication listing (not just the Discharge Instructions)

You or your MIL's follow-on physician can then decide if additional information is needed, such as:
-- Pertinent consultant recommendations (e.g. gastroenterologist, occupational/physical therapist, speech pathologist)
-- Major procedure report (e.g. cardiac catheterization, colonoscopy)
-- Significant radiologic reports (e.g. CT scan, MRI); usually a CD with the actual images on it is helpful as well
-- Significant laboratory results (e.g. positive cultures, pathology reports)

o
-- Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. --
bluemarlin08
Posts: 1561
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:18 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by bluemarlin08 »

My experience has been you get the first copy for free. I did have to pay almost 300 for MIL records for a lawsuit.
dhodson
Posts: 4117
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 3:03 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by dhodson »

If this hospitalization was long or involved significant surgery or ICU type care then those charges are appropriate. Its a lot of pages. It might seem like an excessive number of pages at this time but during the hospitalization, these are important.
User avatar
Topic Author
peregrine
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:07 am

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by peregrine »

Thanks all for your suggestions. We have not decided what to do about this yet but may use some combination of solutions.
User avatar
southerndoc
Posts: 1266
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: Atlanta

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by southerndoc »

Most hospitals charge these fees to individuals and to attorneys because usually they are requesting records for possible lawsuits (either against the health system or another individual if it was an accident type situation). Health systems rarely charge other health systems/physicians for medical records. If you fill out the request and request the information be sent directly to your physician, then it's likely there will be no charge.

Also, your physician probably only needs a copy of the history and physical (H&P), discharge summary and any operative/consult notes. It's rare that daily progress notes will be helpful as most of this *should* be documented in the discharge summary if it was a significant event.
Lafder
Posts: 4117
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:56 pm
Location: East of the Rio Grande

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by Lafder »

For reference, the most the social security folks will pay for a copy of records for disability evaluations is $18.75, regardless of how big the records are. At least in my state, it may vary in other areas.

The 165$ sounds excessive from my experience.

I agree with the comments that it is often no fee if to your doctor for continuity of care.

lafder
RockOn
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 2:46 am

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by RockOn »

I also second the recommendations to go through your doctor. Your doctor should be able to get a copy of the records by having you sign a release form. Your doctor can fax this over to the hospital's medical records department to get a copy of the hospitalization records.

I guess every institution can be different in regards to charges when patients directly request records to their own home, but as a primary care physician, I would be very surprised if they charged a bill for your mother in law's doctor to get a copy of the records.

Ideally, I would let your mother in law's doctor know the situation in advance, and pop in to the clinic to get and sign that release form well before her appointment. If you have a responsive doctor, they can request for those medical records in advance of the appointment.

Just FYI, though- any time medical records have to be mailed, it can be a slow process. Your doctor could request just the important stuff to be faxed (or even faster if they are able to directly page and communicate with the hospital doctor who was in charge). As other posters have already mentioned, the most important pieces of info will be the admission summary and discharge summary, though depending on the hospital course, it can be helpful to have imaging reports, abnormal lab results, and specialist consultation notes as well.
Statch
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:23 pm

Re: Cost of Medical Records

Post by Statch »

We just moved and asked our previous doctor to send our medical records to the new doctor. It was going to cost us $75 for my husband's record alone, after only going to the doctor for 3 years. We said no thanks. Fortunately we had kept good records.
Post Reply