Below is the California state statute which controls the amount of money that doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers can charge for copies of medical records provided to the patient or the patient’s attorney for use in personal injury or wrongful death civil cases. Note that there may be other statutes which pertain to workers’ compensation claims, Social Security disability matters, etc.
We update this page when we learn of a new statute or any revision to the statutes. Despite our best efforts we cannot and do not represent that this statute is up-to-date. One type of revision which is especially hard for us to keep track of has to do with cost changes allowed annually by a statute and based on some indexed inflation rate.
We suggest that you read the actual state statute (as opposed to relying upon our brief summary) when there is a link available.
California
California Health & Safety Code 123110
- No more than $0.25 per page
- $0.50 per page for microfilm copies
- Actual costs for the reproduction of oversize documents or the reproduction of documents requiring special processing which are made in response to a subpoena
- Any additional reasonable clerical costs incurred in making the records available
Evidence Code Section 1158
*This rate is limited to requests made by an attorney in the context of an active court case:
- Ten cents ($0.10) per page for documents 8.5×14 inches or less
- Twenty cents ($0.20) per page for document copies from microfilm
- Actual costs for oversize documents or special processing
- Reasonable clerical costs incurred in locating and making the records available to be billed at the maximum rate of sixteen dollars ($16) per hour per person, computed on the basis of four dollars ($4) per quarter hour or fraction thereof
- Actual postage charges
- Actual costs, if any, charged to the witness by a third person for the retrieval and return of records held by that third person.
If you are aware of an additional or different medical records copying costs statute which should be posted for this state, please send a link to the relevant statute to Tom Lamb.
Likewise, any clarifications, corrections, or updates regarding the statute shown for this state should be submitted to Tom Lamb.
Please understand that the materials on this web page are for general information purposes only, and is not intended as legal advice.
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