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Since 1951, Florida law has granted a patient access to his or her own medical records and has required the health care practitioner who created the records to maintain the confidentiality of the records. Two primary sections of Florida law address medical records and grant patients access to their health information.

Florida Statute 456.057, deals with the confidentiality of, and patient’s access to, medical records created by specified health care practitioners, including medical physicians. Section 395.3025, F.S., addresses the confidentiality of, and patient’s access to, medical records held by a Florida hospital. In addition to sections 456.057 and 395.3025, a number of statutory provisions and administrative agency rules provide additional confidentiality and patient access for specialized individual health information.

Some medical offices will provide you with a copy of your medical records free of charge.  However, some will not and if you are in need of obtaining a copy of your records, you should know what your rights are as to how much a provider can charge you to duplicate your records.

The Florida law governing the cost of duplicating records is the following:

64B8-10.003 Costs of Reproducing Medical Records.

Recognizing that patient access to medical records is important and necessary to assure continuity of patient care, the Board of
Medicine urges physicians to provide their patients a copy of their medical records, upon request, without cost, especially when the
patient is economically disadvantaged. The Board, however, also recognizes that the cost of reproducing voluminous medical
records may be financially burdensome to some practitioners. Therefore, the following rule sets forth the permitted costs for the
reproduction of medical records.

(1) Any person licensed pursuant to Chapter 458, F.S., required to release copies of patient medical records may condition such
release upon payment by the requesting party of the reasonable costs of reproducing the records.

(2) For patients and governmental entities, the reasonable costs of reproducing copies of written or typed documents or reports
shall not be more than the following:

(a) For the first 25 pages, the cost shall be $1.00 per page.
(b) For each page in excess of 25 pages, the cost shall be 25 cents.

(3) For other entities, the reasonable costs of reproducing copies of written or typed documents or reports shall not be more than
$1.00 per page.

(4) Reasonable costs of reproducing x-rays, and such other special kinds of records shall be the actual costs. The phrase “actual
costs” means the cost of the material and supplies used to duplicate the record, as well as the labor costs and overhead costs
associated with such duplication.