Vol. 76, No. 12, December
2003
Wisconsin Department of Health and Family
Services proposes medical records copy fee rule
The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS)
submitted its initial proposed rule setting the maximum fees health care
providers can charge for reproducing patient health care records,
regardless of whether a lawsuit has commenced. The Legislative Council
Rules Clearing-house will review the proposed rule, and then the DHFS
will hold a public hearing on Dec. 15.
The revised ch. HFS 117 contem-plates a two-tiered fee structure,
depending on who is asking for the health care records. Under the
proposed rule, a provider may charge no more than 31 cents per page to
an individual requesting his or her own records or a personal
representative making the request on an individual's behalf. "Personal
representative" includes parents/ guardians of minor children or
administrators of estates but does not include attorneys requesting the
records on behalf of their clients. If a person is requesting another's
records, the provider cannot charge more than $12.50 per request for
fewer than five pages or more than $15 per request for five or more
pages. In addition to these fixed retrieval fees, a provider can charge
up to 31 cents per page.
The legislature directed the DHFS to develop the rule as part of 2001
Wisconsin Act 109 in response to concerns that health care providers
were charging excessive fees for photocopying patients' records. While
administrative rules set a uniform fee of $8.40 or 45 cents per page,
whichever is greater, for obtaining copies of medical records when an
action has commenced, there were no limits for fees charged for records
reproduced outside of litigation.
The DHFS sought input from a 14-member advisory committee equally
representing health care record maintainers and health care record
providers. Atty. Bernard McCartan represented the State Bar. Little
consensus was reached by the committee. Medical record requesters
questioned whether the medical record copy industry's estimates for
reproducing medical records accurately reflected the actual costs
involved while industry representatives stressed the complexity of the
process that justified the figures.
The comment period ends on Dec. 31. Direct comments to Larry Hartzke,
Administrative Rules Manager, Office of Legal Counsel, Wisconsin
Department of Health & Family Services, P.O. Box 7850, Madison, WI
53707-7850, (608) 267-2943, or hartzlr@dhfs.state.wi.us.
Mandatory court form updates include
probate and guardianship forms
As of Oct. 1, the Wisconsin Records Management Committee, an advisory
committee to the Director of State Courts Office, which develops and
distributes mandated forms, released updates to the following forms.
Probate
PR-1801 Application for Informal Administration
PR-1811 Inventory (Informal and Formal)
PR-1830 Affidavit for Transfer of Property ($10,000 and Under)
PR-1831 Transfer by Affidavit ($20,000 and Under)
PR-1835 Summary Settlement - Petition
PR-1840 Summary Assignment - Petition
PR-1901 Petition for Administration
PR-1935 Corporate Trustee's Account
PR-1937 Trustee's Account (Account Included)
Guardianship
GN-2007 Determination and Order Appointing Guardian
GN-2011 Guardianship Inventory
GN-2013 Determination and Order Appointing Temporary Guardian
GN-2023 Annual Report of Guardian
GN-2024 Account of Guardian/Conservator
GN-2081 Waiver and Consent of Minor Guardianship
GN-2084 Determination and Order for Guardianship of Minor
Forms, summaries, background, and information on using standard court
forms are available in PDF or MS Word format at
www.wisbar.org/forms.
For more information, contact Judy Mahlkuch at (608) 266-7143 or judy.mahlkuch@wicourts.gov.
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