Governor Signs Medical Record Copy Costs Into Law (August 27, 2007)

As part of ITLA's legislative agenda, we proposed and supported SB 472 that closed loopholes and reined in the retrieval costs of medical records, especially electronic records. Due to concerns raised by some Senators, the original legislation was moderately changed under HB 830.

We are happy to report that these bills were signed into law by Governor Blagojevich under Public Acts 95-0478 and 95-0480. The effective date of these changes will be January 1, 2008.

PA 95-0478 and PA 95-0480 combined will close the loophole used by some healthcare providers to charge the microfilm/microfiche rate for electronic records. The new law will limit copying fees for medical record companies and require them to provide those records in an electronic format whenever possible. It will require those electronic records to be provided at a cost savings to patients, allowing medical record companies to charge only 50% of the costs of paper records, plus actual postage costs and a processing fee.

Full text of the combined language may be found at http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=095-0480