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Committee sends bill to floor to require one free copy of medical records for disability claims
Summary
The committee voted to send Senate Bill 1087 to the House floor with a "do pass" recommendation. The bill would allow one free electronic copy of medical records for people pursuing Social Security disability claims, targeted at reducing high costs charged by third-party record aggregators.
Representative Wheeler, speaking as the bill carrier, described Senate Bill 1087 as an effort refined over several years to help people applying for Social Security disability benefits obtain required medical records without excessive cost. "What this bill does is it says, someone can get their medical records at no cost, one time, for this type of a claim," Wheeler told the House Health and Welfare Committee.
Wheeler said the measure is targeted at electronic records and aims to prevent out-of-state third-party aggregators — which hospitals and clinics sometimes contract with — from imposing high per-page electronic retrieval fees that can make records unaffordable for claimants. "They will sometimes end up charging something like a buck 58 a page," Wheeler said, and he described cases where fees could reach $1,500 to $2,000 for records needed to pursue a Social Security claim.
Committee members debated the scope and policy rationale. Representative Kaler opposed the bill on free-market grounds, arguing the government should not dictate how private entities price retrieval of electronic records. "I will have to be a no vote on this one," Kaler said, adding, "there's no such thing as free. I can provide a free service to someone, but I end up absorbing that cost myself somewhere else." Representative Healy and others said they supported the bill's narrow focus on disability applicants and framed the provision as part of patient care for vulnerable individuals.
Representative Rubel moved to send Senate Bill 1087, as amended, to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation. The chair put the question on a voice vote; the motion carried and the chair recorded an affirmative vote. No roll-call tally was provided in the transcript.
The bill as discussed would allow one free electronic copy of medical records for a Social Security disability claim; the transcript does not specify the exact statutory text, penalty provisions, enforcement mechanism, or the bill number for the amended House draft. Committee members asked questions about scope and reiterated that the draft was intentionally narrow to help vulnerable claimants who cannot obtain records themselves.
