Businesses that provide medical services, including your doctor, are required by law to maintain those records for 7 – 10 years.  They can not give you the original copies of your record.  They must find your record (sometimes stored outside their office) and go to their copy machine and make all the copies.  Depending on your medical history this could be a few or a great many pages.  The doctor pays the people who do this work and is entitled to recover some of the cost involved.  You don’t work for free, why should he?

I had to change physicians a few years back because my doctor retired and the doctor who took over the practice did not accept my insurance.  I had no choice but to find a different doctor and I was still expected to pay for 20 years of medical records.  I complained to no avail and was eventually sent for collections.  I contacted the credit bureaus, disputed the report and the charge was removed from my credit report.  I think dtaylor4 is either a physician or works for one from the comments.  If a person is not happy or satisfied with their current physician, I don't think it's fair that they pay for something that is technically theirs.  It's just another way that provider's can dip into the pockets of their patients.

True.. Practices are required by law to maintain those medical records for 7 years, However.. that does NOT constitute ( even if they are stored in a seperate facilities) to charge a patient $0.75 PER PAGE. That is ridiculous. It's quite obvious dtaylor4 works for or as a physician. As do I . And although yes.. we are in the buisness to help our patients it does so nicely serve us with a nice profit as well doesn't it??

A piece of paper does NOT cost $0.75 a sheet no where expect medical offices. And the majority of patients records (if they are still on paper and handwritten like those you keep in a storage facility for 7 years) can't even be read by our patients.. nor any other office staff usually.. so my point.. When all their records are on the computer.. like my office is.. and soon everyone else...what's going to be your excuse then for ripping off your patients??

Actually, I retired 5 years ago from a manufacturing management position.  We put a cost on everything we did.  We made a profit but we didn’t give anything away because of it.
I agree that $.75 per sheet is a little high but I also know there is a cost associated with running your copy machine.  Did you ever check what they charge for copies at Kinko’s or a similar facility?   What would it cost you if they loaned you the originals and you had to make your own copies?

I do not work as or for a physician or other medical practice.  I have paid for medical records before, but don't remember how much.  My comment today has more to do with what may be considered when deciding the cost of medical record copies.  It isn't just the paper that has to be paid for, but toner, overall copier maintenance, possibly overage copy costs if the copier is leased rather than owned and they go over their copy quota, plus the time it takes the person copying and collating the documents.  I'm not defending the issue, just putting forward some possible justifications for cost.  HOWEVER... if paying the person to do the work is truly one of the reasons, I find that unjust.  Isn't that person already being paid to be there to do whatever work turns up for the day?

Copies at Kinko's cost a mere 8 cents a copy! 75 cents a copy is a little ridiculous.  We should be entitled to our original copies of our own records not the Dr's.  Our insurance companies pay for this info not the Dr's.  We shouldn't have to pay for something thats ours to begin with.  I don't care how long it takes the Dr's to copy it! If thats the issue give us our originals and be done with it.

The records may be about you, but they belong to the doctor who creates and must maintain them.  You are guaranteed access to them, not ownership.

Assuming one has a fairly complex set of records, say 50 pages, and assume it takes an hour to copy everything by an office admin person, who probably makes about $15.00/hr+associated labor overhead.  At the commercial copy rate of $.10 per page, I'd estimate the true cost to the doctor's practice of about $40.00.  
Charging $.75/page gets them back about $37.50 - that's neither profitable nor excessive...which is why the cost per page is capped at $.75.

BTW, I'm not a physician, do not work for one or anyone in the medical profession.

As a Registered Health Information Administrator and a manager of medical records for 18 years, please keep in mind there use to be retrieval fee $10.00 and the cost of a copy was $1.00 per page.

We are forgetting that those individuals responsible for responding to the request for medical records have an ethical obligation to ensure that the privacy of health information is protected.  It is not a matter of copying, charging for the medical record and releasing it.  There are many regulations that protect various types of health information.  We as credentialed medical record practitioners in health care setting must review each record request to ensure we are not releasing information that is protected under more specific laws such as HIV/AIDS, psych and chemical dependency.

I have worked and continue to work in health information as a privacy officer and a practice manager.  We have to ensure authorizations/requests for information are legally sound prior to copying and releasing.  

Providing patients with their original medical records is not just unrealistic but a huge liability to any health care provider.  There would be no record of the care provide and not to mention the legal ramifications.

Copying records and cost is not the only question here.  Other factors that must be consider; what information is truly needed to provide continunity of care.  Most times it is NOT any and all medical records.  Consumers need to think about the information they want transferred and mailed to them before requesting.  This helps keep costs down.  And yes we get paid for our days work, but it is not as simple as taking a record off a shelf and putting some papers in a copier.  Copying charges is not a BONUS to any staff or provider when they are processed.  

The State sets the cost per page, not those releasing the information.  

With online personal health records we can all take part in protecting our families and our own health and never have to pay for records again . The first step any person can take is by creating a digital health record , this does two important things first it reduces medical errors and second reduces costs so that duplication of services are less likely. It also puts the patient/ consumer in more control of his information which is a powerful tool. A good example of this which is currently free to the public is http://www.medicalrecords247.com. It potentially could save millions of dollars if the public would just take responsibility for there own health, and it starts with the medical record.