HUDSON COUNTY — The office of State Sen. Brian Stack announced on Tuesday that last week Stack drafted legislation to help give patients access to copies of their hospital treatment records at more uniform, reasonable costs.
Specifically, the bill creates a fee structure in accordance with the Open Public Records Act. Currently, the law says that “reasonable” fees may be charged, which creates differing fees and lacks regulation, as no specific fee amounts have been mandated by law.
“My office was receiving reports of hospitals charging different fees for the same types of information,” said Stack in a released statement. “In some cases, the fees were exorbitant.”
According to a press release, the bill provides that a general hospital may require that requests for a copy of the patient’s treatment record at the hospital be in writing.
The hospital is not to charge an amount that exceeds $0.75 for the first through the 10th page, $0.50 for the 11th through the 20th page, and $0.25 for all pages over 20.
The hospitals may also charge postage as applicable and an additional fee (which exceeds the rates above) for the reproduction of x-rays or other material that cannot be routinely copied or duplicated on a commercial photocopy machine.
But the additional fees for such items can be no more than the actual cost of reproducing those materials or any fee charged to the hospital to retrieve those materials from another person or entity, as applicable.
Stack said that the proposed fee structure is designed to assist patients who need to gain access to important records regarding their healthcare without encountering excessive fees to obtain that vital information.