Justices Stay Out Of Medical Records Fee Fight

The on Monday declined to wade into a battle about how much patients should be charged for copies of medical records.

The court issued a brief order saying it would not hear an appeal filed by a patient and a law firm opposed to higher costs. As is common, the court did not explain its reasoning.

The issue stems from a decision in 2015 by the to approve a proposed rule that would allow patients to be charged a maximum of $1 a page for records. That would be a potential increase from a longstanding maximum of $1 a page for the first 25 pages of records and 25 cents a page for additional pages.

The proposed rule was opposed by groups such as the Florida Justice Association and was challenged in the state Division of Administrative Hearings.

An administrative law judge in December 2015 ruled in favor of the Board of Medicine, leading to the case going to the 1st District Court of Appeal. In April, a three-judge panel of the appeals court said the proposed rule had not been ratified by the Legislature, as is required by law because of the potential increased costs. But the appeals court said, in part, that nothing “in the record of these extensive rulemaking proceedings shows that the Board (of Medicine) failed to follow applicable rulemaking procedures or exceeded its rulemaking authority.”

Also, it rejected arguments that the proposed rule was moot because it had not been ratified by the Legislature. Patient Daniel Fernandez and the law firm Dax J. Lonetto, Sr., PLLC then asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue.

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