by Kim C. Stanger, Holland & Hart LLP

HIPAA generally gives patients or their personal representative the right to access or obtain copies of the patient’s protected health information (“PHI”) in their designated record set¹, and limits the amount that providers may charge patients for PHI to a reasonable cost-based fee. (45 CFR 164.524). In February 2016, the OCR issued guidance (“Guidance”) which clarifies allowable fees and identifies additional actions providers should take when charging fees. The OCR’s Guidance may be accessed here.

Allowable Charges. The OCR confirmed that a provider may only charge the patient or personal representative for the following:

1. Labor for copying the requested PHI, whether in paper or electronic form. This includes only the labor for actually creating and delivering the paper or electronic copy in the form and format requested or agreed upon by the patient once the responsive information has been identified, retrieved, collected, compiled and/or collated. For example, allowable costs may include photocopying paper PHI; scanning paper PHI into an electronic format; converting electronic PHI in one format to the format requested by or agreed to by the patient; creating and executing a mailing or e-mail with the responsive PHI; and/or uploading, downloading, attaching, burning, or otherwise transferring electronic PHI from a provider’s system to portable media, e-mail, app, personal health record, web-based portal (where the PHI is not already maintained in or accessible through the portal), or other manner of delivery of the PHI. (See also 78 FR 5636). Labor for copying does not include costs associated with reviewing the patient’s request; searching for, reviewing, retrieving, segregating, collecting, compiling, or otherwise preparing the responsive information for copying; verifying that only information about the requested patient is included; complying with HIPAA; updating or maintaining record systems; etc. (See also 78 FR 5636). Likewise, it does not include administrative or other costs associated with outsourcing record functions to business associates or others beyond the business associate’s labor costs described above. Continue reading →