Switching Doctors.....

It is pretty normal to charge for copying the chart. If you have more such as labs or any kind of xrys, it would be more.

I worked in a drs office for many years and it is very normal to charge. Unfortunately some dr will take advantage of it.

I know you already got a bunch of responses. It is both ethical and typical. They need to keep their files for legal purposes for 7 years in most cases. Somebody has to take the time to make copies of the file which even in the case of a healthy child can be large. It is more than likely in their HIPPA policy which you should have signed on a yearly basis.

This is pretty typical. Usually though if you have your new doctor's office request the file they will not charge as a professional courtesy. As for doing things without your consent-- it unfortunately happens a lot (particularly in OB where I work). If your doctor works for a group or hospital you could complain to the manager of the practice. Good luck.

Our old doctor did the same thing. We also were very surprised and upset. We were leaving because they had made some horrlible mistakes and, they still charged us for the files!! Can you believe they can do this??

there are many dr offices today that are charging for these types of things. i have seen a charge for daycare forms or sports physicals if you need them w/o an appointment. i have seen missed appointment fees going up like crazy. i have even also seen charges for prescriptions if you need them in less than 24 hours. so i am not suprised by this one. i guess they have to pay the person pulling and copying the chart.
do you really need their files? i have switch dr. without requesting that my files come with me and it has never been a problem.

This must be some kind of new trend. We changed doctor's offices last summer because our physician moved to a different practice. The old office also charged us $25 for our son's records. It's completely ridiculous. They refused to forward our records until we paid. So then I paid and they still didn't forward the records. I had to end up requesting the records from the new office (they had a form for this) and I think my doc actually had to call them also to get the records sent over!
I've NEVER had to pay to get medical records before. Certainly it doesn't cost $25 in paper to make those copies and pay for postage. I even tried to pick up our records, and they didn't have them ready when they said they would (big surprise).
Our doc said that she mainly only needed the immunization records anyway... The rest wasn't that important....

I too went through this. I think it's very typical. However, my new doctor told me all they really need is the immunization record (no need to take the time or money to copy ALL pages). Assuming your children are all healthy and have had no major health issues, maybe you could ask to just have those files copied and wouldn't need to charge you so much.

Unfortunately this is what happens when you request the information for yourself, but I found if you have it go from doctor to doctor it is free or at least cheaper. Also, find out exactly what your new doc needs and only send that. Good Luck!

Normal and typical. How old are your children? Imagine how many visits your child has made to the pediatrician and how big that file is. Not that it takes a long time, but photocopying an entire file (which can be mounds of paperwork) is outside of typical duties in an office. When we switched pediatricians, we had to do this too. Yes, it was an inconvenience but I would rather let the new pediatrician get a more complete 'big picture' of my child's health - from the perspective of a trained medical professional - than from my anecdotal evidence. Having a entire health and medical history can be especially helpful in helping someone who is essentially a stranger to your child connect the dots when they are having issues.