High Copying Charges Block Poor From Their Medical Records

Aspect of Need Addressed: Financial, Medical, Legal

A bill came the other day to my disabled son. It was from HealthPoint in Atlanta, GA. It was a photocopying charge of $89.95, for copies of his medical records from a recent hospitalization.

$89.95 for 85 pages of copied records...

Such high copying charges for medical records requested by those disabled on SSI and SSD effectivey constitutes a barrier to their freedom of medical information. The psychiatrically disabled are entitled to have copies of their medical records to see what happened to them in hospital. But it seems that these high rates are sanctioned by the Attorney General's office of the State of New Jersey. In other words, the State government's sanction of these rates is actually hindering those who most need these records, but cannot afford to pay such high fees.

A while back he was hospitalized at Princeton Behaviorial Health for 10 days in a Level 4 care facility, which is not an uncommon situation for people with psychiatric disabilities. Hospitalization is part of life. Of course the goal is to reduce hospitalizations. But psychiatrically disabled people just wind up hospitalized more than other folks.

Because the hospitalization was to care for his psychiatric disability, afterwards he requested copies of his medical records. This was important to check exactly what treatment he received while there. In particular, he wanted to know what medications he was administered, what observations the nurses recorded, what recommendations the doctors ordered--and, indeed, for what diagnosis he was treated. This is a very prudent and sensible thing to do. All psychiatric patients should insist on copious records of their treatment. It should be their right.

So he wrote to Princeton Hospital, which cared for him, asking for his records. Princeton Hospital outsourced the request to HealthPort, a health information records management company. Some time later the sheaf of papers arrived, followed by a copying bill. HealthPort charges $1.00 per page for copying.

My son, on SSI and SSD, and receives an income of $695 a month in total. He barely meets all his daily living expenses on this meager amount. HealthPort's bill for $89.95 is to him an economic earthquake. As his financial representative, I called HealthPort to learn why this was so expensive.

A nice man answered the phone. He told me that HealthPort's rates are "regulated" individually by each state in which it has business. In New Jersey, they are set by the State of New Jersey's Attorney General's office. I called the AG's office, was directed to its "Citizen's Services and Relations" line, and then to a recording, on which I left a request to be called back.

Let's see whether the AG's office responds...