Surprise charges even when accessing own medical records
November 09, 2014
The New York Times published a follow-up article about how patients receive some unexpected bills even when getting a copy of his own medical records. One patient is reported to have been charged for an office visit when he was told to come in to pick up a copy of his records. Policies vary from office to office, and although providers are legally required to provide copies of medical records at a reasonable cost, "reasonable" means different things to different people. As a result, the cost for patients to get copies of their medical records vary from provider to provider -- similar to the cost of procedures for the uninsured.
It can be difficult to enforce a vague definition of "reasonable," but if all costs were transparent and easily accessible, the market could go a long way in either establishing more concrete policies.