A New Path to No-Cost Electronic Medical Records

The patient’s right to designate a third party to receive their medical records was stripped from them by the court decision in CIOX v Azar in January 2020.  CIOX v Azar vacated the right of patients to receive low-cost records under the HIPAA/HITECH regulations if the records were being sent to a designated third party.
 

However, on May 1, 2020 the Final Ruling of regulations based on the Cures Act re-established the patient’s right to designate third parties to receive their medical records.  Those regulations will become enforceable on April 5, 2021. 
 

DHHS, OCR is expected to publish a Final Ruling on regulations designed to update the HIPAA regulations.  Changes will include a requirement that all covered entities and their contractors must publish a schedule of prices they charge for records on the internet.  This will prevent charges for medical records that exceed the published price schedule.  Patients contesting the charges will be able to present the price schedule in a complaint to DHHS, OCR to challenge the validity of the charges based on either violation of the schedule or because the schedule violates HIPAA regulations.