Requires the release of medical records of deceased minors or persons for whom a guardian has been appointed, to a parent or guardian within ninety days.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6112
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 4, 2012
___________
Introduced by Sen. BONACIC -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to medical records of
certain deceased persons
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 17 of the public health law, as amended by chapter
2 165 of the laws of 1991, the first undesignated paragraph as amended by
3 chapter 576 of the laws of 1998, is amended to read as follows:
4 § 17. Release of medical records. 1. Upon the written request of any
5 competent patient, parent or guardian of an infant, a guardian appointed
6 pursuant to article eighty-one of the mental hygiene law, or conservator
7 of a conservatee, an examining, consulting or treating physician or
8 hospital must release and deliver, exclusive of personal notes of the
9 said physician or hospital, copies of all x-rays, medical records and
10 test records including all laboratory tests regarding that patient to
11 any other designated physician or hospital provided, however, that such
12 records concerning the treatment of an infant patient for venereal
13 disease or the performance of an abortion operation upon such infant
14 patient shall not be released or in any manner be made available to the
15 parent or guardian of such infant, and provided, further, that original
16 mammograms, rather than copies thereof, shall be released and delivered.
17 Either the physician or hospital incurring the expense of providing
18 copies of x-rays, medical records and test records including all labora-
19 tory tests pursuant to the provisions of this section may impose a
20 reasonable charge to be paid by the person requesting the release and
21 deliverance of such records as reimbursement for such expenses,
22 provided, however, that the physician or hospital may not impose a
23 charge for copying an original mammogram when the original has been
24 released or delivered to any competent patient, parent or guardian of an
25 infant, a guardian appointed pursuant to article eighty-one of the
26 mental hygiene law, or a conservator of a conservatee and provided,
27 further, that any charge for delivering an original mammogram pursuant
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13674-01-1
S. 6112 2
1 to this section shall not exceed the documented costs associated there-
2 with. However, the reasonable charge for paper copies shall not exceed
3 seventy-five cents per page. A release of records under this section
4 shall not be denied solely because of inability to pay.
5 2. Upon the death of any minor child, or of an adult for whom a guard-
6 ian has been appointed pursuant to article eighty-one of the mental
7 hygiene law, an examining, consulting or treating physician or hospital
8 shall, release and deliver, exclusive of personal notes of the said
9 physician or hospital, copies of all x-rays, medical records and test
10 records including all laboratory tests regarding such deceased person to
11 the parent or guardian of such minor child or the appointed guardian of
12 an adult patient, within ninety days of a written request by such parent
13 or guardian.
14 3. For the purposes of this section the term "laboratory tests" shall
15 include but not be limited to tests and examinations administered in
16 clinical laboratories or blood banks as those terms are defined in
17 section five hundred seventy-one of this chapter.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
