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Electronic Copy Fees

The WHIMA Policy, Advocacy, and Legislative Team (PAL) request your feedback on the April 4th verdict from Banuelos vs. UW Hospitals & Clinics case. In summary, the court of appeals agreed with Banuelos that Wisconsin Statute 146.83(3)(f)  does not permit healthcare providers from charging fees for copies of records in electronic format because the law is silent on electronic copy fees.
 
In addition to soliciting your feedback, WHIMA is also looking to understand the scope of the financial impact on providers across the state. We are seeking to identify facility dollars to aggregate the impact on the healthcare industry.  We are asking that you work with the appropriate individuals in your organization to provide the following information by Friday, June 2, 2023.
1.Do you agree with the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision that says the lack of verbiage identifying electronic delivery in the law means that we should be prohibited from charging for electronic copies delivered to third parties?
2.Should WHIMA work with State Legislators and other groups to help address electronic copy fees for WI?
3.Did your organization charge for electronic copies before the Banuelos case (September 2020)?
4.Please provide the number of requests for electronic copies for the calendar year 2019 (pre-COVID).
5.Please provide the number of electronic pages for 2019.
6.If possible, please provide the dollar amount for 2019.
7.Since September 2020, have you experienced an increase in what your EHR vendor charges for the portal?  If so, what is the financial impact?
8.Since September 2020, have you experienced an increase in your EHR vendor charges for the EHI export?  If so, what is the financial impact?
9.Did you use a third-party ROI vendor to process e-delivered requests prior to the September 2020 decision?
10.If you used a third party to process these requests, do you still use the third party?
11.If utilizing a vendor, has the vendor contract been amended to address the shift from charging requestors to charging the facility?  If yes, what was the financial impact on your organization (annualize)?
12.If your organization utilized a vendor and decided to bring electronic requests back in-house, how many FTEs were added to address the volume of work?
13.If your organization processes these requests internally, how many FTEs are required to complete the work?
14.If your organization processes these requests internally, what is the financial impact?
15.Other Questions or Comments