The WHIMA Policy, Advocacy, and Legislative Team (PAL) is looking for 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.
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?
Should WHIMA work with State Legislators and other groups to help address electronic copy fees for WI?
WHIMA is not only soliciting your feedback but 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:
- What did your organization charge for all (i.e. patient, third party, etc.) electronic copies before the Banuelos case (September 2020)?
- The number of requests for electronic copies for the calendar year 2019 (pre-COVID).
- The number of electronic pages for 2019.
- If possible, please provide the dollar amount for 2019.
- Since September 2020, have you experienced an increase in your EHR vendor charges for:
- the portal? If so, what is the financial impact?
- the EHI export? If so, what is the financial impact?
- Did you use a third-party ROI vendor to process e-delivered requests before the September 2020 decision?
- 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)?
- 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?
- If your organization processes these requests internally, how many FTEs are required to complete the work? What is the financial impact?
Complete this survey to provide your responses by Friday, June 2, 2023.