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Subcommittee advances bill tightening timelines for patient access to medical records
Summary
HB 1309 would require most health practitioners and facilities to provide records within 14 days, allow inspection within 10 days, and align nursing-home timelines with federal law (24-hour access and copies within two working days); proponents framed it as improving care coordination while opponents warned of privacy and litigation risks.
Representative Booth presented House Bill 1309 as a patient-centered measure to standardize and shorten turnaround times for patient access to medical records. Major sponsor provisions described in committee: require health-care practitioners and facilities (excluding nursing homes) to provide records within 14 days of a request and allow inspection within 10 days; require nursing homes to provide residents access within 24 hours and a copy within two working days.
Cynthia Henderson (Alliance for Health Information and Operational Systems) opposed the bill, saying mandated access could open patient portals and electronic health records to data mining, create safety issues, and increase class-action litigation exposure; she told the committee that, in her view, patients already receive records within one to three days in most cases.
Representative Salzman defended the bill as consistent with collaborative care and existing HIPAA-compliant sharing arrangements; Representative Verdot (an attorney) said federal law (referred to in testimony as the 'Federal High-tech Act') already requires provision of electronic records within 30 days and argued HB 1309 provides reasonable improvements. The committee recorded 17 yeas and 1 nay and reported the bill favorably.
