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Committee advances bill to waive one-time charge for disability applicants' medical records
Summary
The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1087 (as amended) to the floor with a due-pass recommendation. The bill would require providers or their contractors to provide one free copy of electronic medical records for people applying for Social Security disability claims.
Representative Luke Wheeler, the House carrier, summarized Senate Bill 1087 (as amended) and said it reflected several years of work by Senator Ricks to ease access to medical records for disability applicants.
"What this bill does is it says, someone can get their medical records at no cost, one time, for this type of a claim," Representative Wheeler said. He said the bill targets electronic records obtained for Social Security disability applications and is narrower than prior drafts that attempted to cap per‑page fees.
Wheeler and others said the measure responds to third‑party record‑retrieval companies that contract with hospitals and clinics and sometimes charge high per‑page fees; Wheeler said those charges have in some cases made records retrieval cost-prohibitive for disability applicants. "They will sometimes end up charging something like a buck 58 a page," Wheeler said, and duplicates in the files can push a single set of records into the thousands of dollars.
Representative Kaler registered an objection on principle, saying he was not a fan of government dictating private businesses' pricing and adding, "I will have to be a no vote on this one." Representative Beissinger questioned whether the exemption should be broader; Wheeler and Representative Healy said the bill was intentionally narrow to assist vulnerable applicants who cannot retrieve records themselves. "I appreciate the narrow focus," Representative Healy said, and said she would support the bill.
Representative Rubel moved that the committee send Senate Bill 1087 (as amended) to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation. The chair called for the voice vote; the chair announced the motion carried and that the bill would be sent to the floor with the due‑pass recommendation. During the vote Representative Kaler was recorded as opposing the motion; the chair voted yes. The committee did not record a roll‑call tally in the transcript.
The bill text before the committee limited the free, one‑time provision to individuals applying for Social Security disability claims and did not extend a free copy for all medical‑record requests. Senator Ricks was identified as the long‑time sponsor who narrowed the measure to the current focus after earlier, more prescriptive drafts.
