AN ACT ESTABLISHING REASONABLE FEES FOR COPYING MEDICAL RECORDS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 70 of chapter 111 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out, in lines 25 and 26, the words, "and a copy shall be furnished upon the request and a payment of a reasonable fee" and inserting in place thereof the following words:- and a copy shall be furnished upon the payment of a reasonable fee, which for the purposes of this section shall mean a base charge of not more than $15 for each request for a hospital or clinic medical record; a per page charge of not more than $0.50 for each of the first 100 pages of a hospital or clinic medical record that is copied per request; and not more than $0.25 per page for each page in excess of 100 pages of a hospital or clinic medical record that is copied per request.
SECTION 2. Said section 70 of said chapter 111, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by adding the following paragraph:-
The reasonable fee under this section may be adjusted to reflect the consumer price index for medical care services, such that the base amount and the per page charge shall be increased by the proportional consumer price index in effect as of October of the calendar year in which the request is made, rounded to the nearest dollar. A hospital or clinic may also charge an additional fee to cover the cost of postage, other priority mailing and preparation of an explanation or summary of the hospital or clinic medical record if so requested.
SECTION 3. Section 12CC of chapter 112 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out, in lines 4 and 5, the words "and payment of a reasonable fee shall make a copy of such patients records" and inserting in place thereof the following words:- a copy of such patient's record shall be furnished upon payment of a reasonable fee, as defined in section 70 of chapter 111.
SECTION 4. For the purposes of determining the applicable consumer price index set forth in section 2, the period for applying the consumer price index rate increase shall begin in the next calendar year after the effective date of this act.
SECTION 5. This act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.