rleif1sun
Guru
our acute care team will produce CD for x-rays and provide to patient. is this seperately billable?
can insurance be billed for providing the records via CD?According to the US HHS providers may charge a reasonable fee to cover the costs of providing a copy of a patient's medical record to them. They further state you cannot charge the patient a fee for searching for or retrieving their medical records. Here is a link to the US HHS website for patients regarding their rights to obtain their medical records. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/medical-records/index.html
Unfortunately, the HHS does not define what a reasonable fee is here, but I would think the cost of the CD and the nominal labor charges associated with a member of your staff downloading record to the CD and creating the CD can be charged to the patient. Also, the patient has a right to request the information be provided to them via email which would be less of an expense for the patient and your practice, so that might be an option for patients who are sensitive to any charges that you might apply for creating the CD.
Also, some states have laws/regulations/statutes which dictate how much you can charge a patient for copies of their medical records so make sure you are checking with your specific state to see if they have mandated fee limits.