OCR Decries Records Retrieval as 'Cost Center,' Would Require Faster Access

Citing “substantial confusion” on the issue of “whether or not a provider can charge a reasonable cost based-fee” for records access, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is proposing to revise several requirements related to patient’s access to medical records.

OCR is also seeking to tamp down on costs patients have faced. “We do not believe a patient’s personal medical records should be profit centers for providers,” said OCR Director Roger Severino.

These efforts are spelled out in a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) OCR and HHS officials announced last month,[1] but which had yet to be published in the Federal Register as of RPP’s deadline (see related story, p. 1).[2]

OCR is “clarifying, through this [proposed] rule, that providers must have a fee schedule posted and publicly available so that people know what it costs to get their own records” or protected health information (PHI), Severino said in a call with RPP and other reporters.

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