Private service | It costs $75 to get copy of your medical files

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By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

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Former patients of a retired family doctor received notice in the mail recently, saying they would have to pay up to $75 for a copy of their personal medical records.

Many of the patients from Dr. Susan Fenzl's practice received a form letter from a Toronto-based company, called DOCUdavit Solutions Inc., that informed them they could purchase a copy of their file for a maximum of $75 per person, or $150 for a family of four.

Kathy White said she was surprised when she opened the letter.

"I thought, 'My files are where? My private medical files? Who's got them? Who's looking at them? I can get them online?'" she said.

"It was so strange. At first I thought it was a joke."

White did some research online and discovered that a patient's medical records belong to their family doctor.

The majority of those retired physicians retain the original copies of their files to protect themselves against future legal proceedings or insurance claims, and most charge patients an administrative fee to cover the costs of sending a copy of those files to a patient's new family practitioner.

White said that makes sense, but it was still surprising to learn she'd have to do business with a company in Toronto to obtain copies of her medical files.

Dr. Ed Schollenberg, registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick, said copying fees are never popular, but there are benefits to using a private company.

"What they're charging is not too far from the going rate for a lot of these processes - photocopying, copy storage, whatever," he said.

"The advantage is these records are now secure ... That has not been the case, always, when physicians have tried to look after it themselves.

"We've had all kinds of issues with records being abandoned in garages, or records were kept in somebody's basement, which flooded and were lost."

Schollenberg said it isn't always necessary for the new family physician to receive a patient's record, since he or she can take a complete history and access many medical slides from local health-care facilities.

"And they're going to be interested in what's recent history and what's really important - the past history that's significant, a major surgery and that sort of thing," he said.

Sid Soil, one of the principal owners of DOCUdavit Solutions Inc., said his company has a federal security certification and provides a valuable service for many different professionals.

"We specialize in storage for professionals - we do doctors, lawyers, accountants, and government agencies," he said.

He's received many calls from concerned patients, who want to know why they have to pay for their files and who are concerned about the safety of their personal documents.

"There's a misconception in Canada that health care is free. When you walk into a doctor's office, there are very few occasions when you have to put your hand in your pocket," he said.

"But health care is not free. When a doctor performs a service, they get paid for it. They get paid by the provincial government, rather than the patient. This is one of those services that the provincial government does not pay for."

Soil said the patient can choose to receive paper copies of their medical files, or an electronic copy on CD, or they can print the documents themselves and save them to disc by accessing the file through a secure website, which requires a user ID and password.

But he said the company isn't out to take advantage of Canadians in need.

"If somebody's on disability, we waive our fee. If there is a senior involved, they can call us," he said.

"The key thing to know is that people have to call us and talk to us. I'm a normal guy. We've never, ever not provided a patient with their records when there's been a request."