Title: Medical Records Access Fairness Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Medical Records Access Fairness ActThis bill prohibits health care providers from charging a fee for providing copies of individuals' protected health information. This prohibition does not apply to requests for a duplicate of a copy that an individual has received within the past year or a nonelectronic copy that is otherwise available at no cost in electronic form through an online portal.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7295 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7295

To amend the HITECH Act to allow an individual to obtain a copy of such 
    individual's protected health information at no cost in certain 
                 circumstances, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 13, 2018

   Mr. Foster (for himself, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. 
   Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, and Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                  the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the HITECH Act to allow an individual to obtain a copy of such 
    individual's protected health information at no cost in certain 
                 circumstances, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Medical Records Access Fairness 
Act''.

SEC. 2. ACCESS OF INDIVIDUALS TO PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION AT NO 
              COST IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES.

    Section 13405 of the HITECH Act (42 U.S.C. 17935) is amended by 
adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(f) Access of Individuals to Protected Health Information at No 
Cost in Certain Circumstances.--
            ``(1) Access of individuals to protected health information 
        at no cost in certain circumstances.--
                    ``(A) In general.--In providing an individual (and, 
                if the individual expressly requests, a health care 
                provider or a family caregiver) with access to a copy 
                of such individual's protected health information (or a 
                summary or explanation of such information) in 
                accordance with section 164.524 of title 45, Code of 
                Federal Regulations, a health care provider may not 
                impose any fee on such individual, unless the 
                individual is requesting--
                            ``(i) a duplicate copy (or summary or 
                        explanation) of protected health information 
                        that was previously provided to such individual 
                        in the same calendar year of the request; or
                            ``(ii) a non-electronic copy (or summary or 
                        explanation) of protected health information 
                        that the health care provider has made 
                        accessible for the individual, at no cost, on 
                        an online portal of the health care provider.
                    ``(B) Copies transmitted to other health care 
                providers.--In the case of an individual who expressly 
                requests a health care provider to transmit to another 
                health care provider a copy of such individual's 
                protected health information (or a summary or 
                explanation of such information), such transmitting 
                provider may transmit such copy (or summary or 
                explanation) in any form and format to the extent that 
                such form and format is readily usable by such 
                receiving provider.
            ``(2) Regulations.--Not later than six months after the 
        date of the enactment of this subsection, the Secretary of 
        Health and Human Services shall promulgate and amend 
        regulations as necessary to implement the requirements 
        described in this subsection.
            ``(3) Effective date.--This subsection shall take effect 
        with respect to requests for access to protected health 
        information made on or after the date that is 180 days after 
        the date of the enactment of this subsection.''.
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