Records Fees
The process of releasing our Patient's Health Information —PHI, is a complicated, costly, and extremely tedious process in which many steps must be followed to ensure our patient's confidentiality. Many laws, including Federal, State, HIPAA, and HITECH exist and must be followed to protect the patient's proper disclosure.
The process of complying with records requests takes valuable time out of our highly skilled staff, therefore our time in making the requested records available must be compensated according to the California Evidence Code —Reasonable Cost:
California Code Evidence Code Section 1563
"Reasonable clerical costs incurred in locating and making the records available to be billed at the maximum rate of twenty-four dollars ($24) per hour per person, computed on the basis of six dollars ($6) per quarter hour or fraction thereof; actual postage charges; and the actual cost, if any, charged to the witness by a third person for the retrieval and return of records held offsite by that third person."
Third-Party Requesters
If records (digital, paper, storage) are found, a Final Invoice for the production cost of records, will be submitted to your office for approval. —This final reproduction cost must be made payable to our medical practice "Edward G. Stokes, MD INC" for our valuable time in making records available.
Per the California Evidence Code, all clerical time spent shall be charged against the party serving the request. —From the moment our practice receives the request, including, but not limited to, the time that it takes our highly skilled staff to —Accept service, verify the validity of the request, verify the patient's information, enter the request information into a Tracking System for HIPAA Regulations, status phone calls, emails, correspondence, searching and collection of digital information, searching and collection of paper information from archived files, if any, processing one or more formats of documents, charts, records, documents compilation against specific dates of service requested, records review and certification, records upload and distribution, cd preparation, production of pages in hard copies, shipping, and handling, etc...
Final Production Check Must be payable to the "Edward G. Stokes, MD INC"
PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON OUR FINAL PRODUCTION INVOICE
Edward G. Stokes, MD INC
| TAX ID: 12-3456789 | ROI ID: 10001 |
| TAX ID: | ROI ID: |
| Medical Facility | Legal Requestor |
| Edward G. Stokes, MD INC | Copy Service |
| 275 W. San Bernardino Rd | 1142 S. Diamond Bar Blvd PMB 310 |
| Covina, CA 91724 | Diamond Bar, CA 91765 |
| Facility | Requestor |
| Edward G. Stokes, MD INC | Copy Service |
| 275 W. San Bernardino Rd | 1142 S. Diamond Bar Blvd PMB 310 |
| Covina, CA 91724 | Diamond Bar, CA 91765 |
| Invoice ID | Invoice Date | Record Type | Reference ID |
| 1001 | 01/01/2024 | Medical | 123456-01 |
| ID | Date | Type | ID |
| 1001 | 1/1/24 | Med | 123456 |
| Patient | Doctor |
| Jane Doe | Doctor Joe |
| Description | Units | Price | Total |
| Production Cost | 1 | 1 | $24.00 |
| Image Unit Cost | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| Records Certification | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| Upload/ Delivery Fee | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | Invoice Total | $24.00 |
| Desc | Units | Price | Total |
| Units | 1 | 1 | $24.00 |
| Units | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| Units | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| Fee | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | Total | $24.00 |