OAR 818-012-0032: Diagnostic Records

(1) Licensees shall provide duplicates of physical diagnostic records to patient or patient's guardian within 14 calendar days of receipt of written request. (a) Physical records include: (A) Legible copies of paper charting and chart notes, and; (B) Duplicates of silver emulsion radiographs of the same quality as the originals, duplicates of physical study models, and photographs if they have been paid for. (b) Licensees may require the patient or patient’s guardian to pay in advance the fee reasonably calculated to cover costs of making the copies or duplicates. (2) Licensee may charge a fee not to exceed $30 for copying 10 or fewer pages of written material and no more than $0.50 per page for 11-50 and no more than $0.25 for each additional page, including cost of microfilm plus any postage costs to mail copies requested and actual costs of preparing an explanation or summary of information, if requested. The actual costs of duplicating radiographs may also be charged to the patient. (3) Licensees shall provide duplicates of digital patient records within 14 calendar days of receipt of written request by the patient or patient's guardian. (a) Digital records include any patient diagnostic image, study model, test result or chart record in digital form. (b) Licensees may require the patient or patient’s guardian to pay for the typical retail cost of the digital storage device, such as a CD, thumb drive, or DVD as well as associated postage. (c) Licensees shall not charge any patient or patient’s guardian to transmit requested digital records over email if total records do not exceed 25 Mb. (d) Licensees may charge up to $5 for duplication of digital records up to 25Mb and up to $30 for more than 25Mb. (e) Any transmission of patient records shall be in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA Act) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). (f) Duplicated digital records shall be of the same quality as the original digital file. (4) If a records summary is requested by patient or patient’s guardian, the actual cost of creating this summary and its transmittal may be billed to the patient or patient’s guardian. (5) Patient records or summaries may not be withheld from the patient because of any prior unpaid bills, except as provided in (1)(a)(B) of this rule.