Patient Record Question

[LH90025]

Can an Ophthalmologist deny a patient a copy of his/her second opinion and a copy of the pictures of his/her eyes for any reason?
  

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[Jenn0030]

Most medical practices have a policy established the charges associated with obtaining your personal medical records for YOUR own use including your photos.  If you are requesting these on behalf of another physician have the records directly be sent the the physician as they most likely the fee would be waived for the benefit of maintaing your consistent care between physicians.

Make sure you are specific in your request to which records you are asking for, do you want all your records for your personal use?  If that is the case, be prepared to pay by the page and if you want the photos spcifically ask for the photos as well.  

But, if you just want the info to get to your new doctor let them know as charges are not usually involed including photos.

[Lerbea]

Maybe not but I got all my records for free. And the photos were copied on a Xerox machine...

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

No business, legal or law firm is going to charge ten cent/page due to the time of staff doing the copying.

JCH MD

[Lerbea]

All one has to do to copy the photos of eyes are to use a Xerox or copies machine. Less than 10 cents a copy.

[Lerbea]

Most states have a law that says patients have rights to their records.  Check with your state laws.  Georgia and Tennessee have such laws.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The records belong to the physician not to you. That point is well established in law. However you should be able to obtain a copy of your records by filling out the appropriate forms and paying a reasonable cost for copying and handling of your records. For large charts this gets expensive. The pictures of your eye are extremely expensive to reproduce and give to you.

JCH MD