To the Editor:
Recently, the Veteran’s Administration (VA) has been assisting me with health problems attributable to injuries I sustained during a combat tour in Viet Nam in 1965.
In order to provide for my needs properly, the VA requested a copy of my medical records from each of the doctors and specialists that have treated me. Every doctor but one provided the copies to the VA without hesitation. However, a local specialist in neurology would not provide the records because the VA would not pay his fee for the copies. His office manager called me to tell me that. I had already been to his office for a copy of my file for another purpose and was charged $18, or a $1 per page. I was therefore able to supply the VA with the necessary copies myself. However, because of the timing, apparently the neurologist’s office had already received a second request from the VA. His office manager called me again to inform me that they would not provide the copies because the VA would not pay their required fee.
I told the office manager that I did not understand their policy or the exorbitant fee they charged, and that they were preventing the VA from being able to assist me. I was told that it was not their policy, but that it was New Jersey state law that required the fee. I asked then why all the other doctors did not request a fee. I was told that she did not know, but their office was only enforcing the law. She then abruptly ended the conversation.
As the answer she gave made no sense and implied that all the other doctors were lawbreakers, I researched the law myself. On the N.J. Attorney General’s Department of Consumer Affairs website, I found that the law states that the doctor may charge a fee that cannot exceed $1 a page. So, as you can see, it all was about the doctor choosing to charge the maximum fee allowed obviously in order to put another $18 in his pocket without regard to the patient, the VA, or anything but his own profit.
DONALD S. MILLER