Vol. 76, No. 12, December 2003

• Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services proposes medical records copy fee rule
• Mandatory court form updates include probate and guardianship forms

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.

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